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Harshal Patel (Image Credit : BCCI/IPL)
Harshal Patel's career has been on the rise since the 2021 edition of the Indian T20 League. In the 2021 season, he equalled Dwayne Bravo's record of 32 wickets in a season. His performance during that season also helped him earn a place in the Indian team for the T20I series against New Zealand last year. However, not a lot of people are aware about his life when he used to live in the United States of America.
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In an interview with Gaurav Kapur on 'Breakfast With Champions' on YouTube, Patel revealed that he used to work in perfume store owned by a Pakistan-origin guy. The right-arm medium added that in those days, he used to have hard time speaking in English as he had studied in a Gujarati-medium school. He revealed that he used to earn USD 35 per day.
“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 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." he said
"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,” Harshal said.
Harshal Patel hasn't been to replicate last year's performance for Bangalore in the ongoing edition of the Indian T20 League. In 9 matches, he has managed to pick 10 wickets at an average of 26.10.