Anuj’s family is on cloud nine

Virender Pal Singh is a farmer in Ruppur Village (Narayanpur Muliya) in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand but he didn’t want his son Anuj Rawat to farm with him. The middle class family had struggled a lot but things have drastically changed since the left-hand batter has been playing the IPL.

On Saturday, the 22-year-old Anuj, playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore team against Mumbai Indians won his first IPL Player of the Match award for scoring 66 runs, 2/3rd of it with boundaries (six sixes and two fours in 47 balls).

Singh and his wife (Asha Rawat, a housewife) watched the match on TV in their village, whereas his elder brother Prashant and his wife Ranjana didn’t miss watching the single ball in Delhi. Incidentally, Anuj has been living with his brother in Delhi.

“I watch every match whether it be domestic or IPL — this was a great knock by him. The best part about his innings was that it led to a win. Virat bhai and he built a really important partnership when it was needed,” the brother said over the phone.

“In his previous matches as well he was getting those starts but was not able to score big, I’m super delighted he did it in this game and won the MOM. We are big RCB fans. It’s a dream come true to see my brother playing for RCB and winning a game for them.”

It is interesting to learn that Anuj is a good singer and a cook too. “He enjoys singing. Even in my engagement, it was because of Anuj I was able to sing the complete song, as he knows the lyrics of most songs. You can find Anuj cooking in the kitchen sometimes.”

“Initially, it was a lot of struggle. Anuj and I were both very young and it was difficult to work/study and manage the household. We were used to being with our parents. This was a drastic change for us. But, when Anuj got selected for the first IPL season, a lot of things changed. Especially financially, he has always been there for us. The 10 years worth hard work that my family put in, came with a great outcome,” he signed off.