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‘I used to work 12-13 hours a day and get paid $35': RCB star revisits working at perfume store owned by Pakistani in US
Royal Challengers Bangalore are having a torrid time in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Royal Challengers Bangalore are having a torrid time in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After being bundled out for 68 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the team produced another lackluster effort with the bat and failed to chase a paltry 145 against Rajasthan Royals. (IPL 2022 full coverage)
The team, however, is not short of talent in both front of the game. Virat Kohli, who has not fired yet, spearheads the batting along with former Proteas batter Faf du Plessis. The bowling is looked after by Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj among others. One among such talent is Harshal Patel, who has been projected as a death over specialist by many.
The trajectory in Patel's cricket graph took a upward bend when he was traded from Delhi Capitals to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2020. Soon after the switch, the 31-year-old pacer emerged as the leading wicket-taker in the previous edition of the Indian Premier League.
Patel had then scalped 32 wickets from 15 outings maintaining an economy of 8.14. Soon after his splendid show, the seamer got an India call and made his T20I debut against New Zealand last year.
However, the cricketer's journey has not been smooth and in the latest episode of Breakfast with Champions hosted by Gaurav Kapoor, Patel opened about his initial years when he had a blue-collar job in the United States.
Patel had moved to the country back when he was 17 along with his parents.
“I used to work at this Pakistani guy’s perfume store in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I couldn’t speak a word of English because I had studied in a Gujarati medium throughout. That was my first encounter with the language and also with the language with so much slang because that entire area was predominantly Latino and African American. Then I picked up their kind of English. Gangster English."
“They used to come and buy $100 perfume bottles on Fridays. On Monday they used to come back and used to say, ‘hey man I just sprayed it a couple of times. I want to return it man. I have no food on the table’. That was a regular occurrence. It was a great experience for me because I learned what those blue collar jobs really are. My aunt and uncle used to go to their offices, and they would drop me on the way. So at 7 am I would be dropped and the store would open at 9 am. Two hours I used to sit at the Elizabeth railway station. Do my work till 7.30, 8. So 12-13 hours a day and I used to get paid $35 a day,” said Patel during the interaction.
After a stellar show, Patel was roped in by RCB for ₹10.75 crore at the 2022 mega-auction, but has not being able to create a similar impact as witnessed in the previous edition. He has so far taken 10 scalps in the 8 matches he has played so far in the competition.
