*Up, close and personal with your favourite RCB player. Fans, fire away the quirky questions!
Disclaimer: For the IPL 2009 period, this piece is run entirely on the creative juices of the author and is illustrative of a format that the Chief Blogger for RCB might be involved in writing.
All content in this piece is to be treated as fictional.
Questions for Praveen Kumar
Q. This getting hit in the penultimate over and coming back to bowl a cracker in the final over is becoming a habit now. (Previous reference to 2nd final of CB series 2007-08) How do you get a bad over you've bowled out of your head so fast? asked Arjun from Pune
Ans. I keep replaying in my head a piece that Star News had done on my engagement a while ago. It's hilarious, helps me laugh at myself and relax! The rest comes easy. I've already bowled 11233 balls in competitive cricket according to a friend who's a statistician with Cricinfo so the final over is just six more. :)
Watch a video of that clipping here:
Q. You almost got a first class hundred. What happened when you were batting in that match on 98? asked Sheena from Delhi
Ans. I did a Shane Warne! Just like he impatiently patted Daniel Vettori for three deliveries before going for a slog sweep and getting a top edge on 99 to miss out on a test hundred, I got excited by the prospect of three figures. I tried keeping it on the ground for two balls and getting it past the fielder like a responsible batsman, but that first season with Uttar Pradesh had been so good that I decided to ride some luck and go for it. I slogged, and the only thing that connected were the ball and the wickets. We were in a winning position in that match, so my team mates had a good laugh, but boy was I mad with myself. I swore never to bat like that again, but realised it wasn't too much fun. So the swinging ways remain.
Q. You, Suresh Raina, R P Singh and Piyush Chawla played together in the Uttar Pradesh U-19 team. Who was the naughtiest? asked Sanjay from Bangalore
Ans. That's a tough one! I'll give it to Piyush Chawla though. Baby-faced he may look like on the outside, but he was a prankster. This one time, he imitated a kid's voice over the intercon in the hotel to get me and RP to rush down to look for him, thinking he was in trouble. When we did, there was Piyush rolling on the bed laughing. We gave him a few good short balls on his rib cage at practise the next day. Yuvi's a fun guy as well and I asked him about Piyush, "Bacche ko bigada to nahin na tune?". He just smiled and winked. I'm sure there are practical jokes just waiting to be played in that KXIP team bus. Not like there aren't in ours. But you'll have to wait just a little more to find out. ;)
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