The day Indian captain Rohit Sharma had become a crorepati, the first thing which had managed to spring to his mind was the thought of purchasing a car. Just a few months past his teenage years back then, one should cut some slack to a youngster for an impulsive reaction as such upon earning a sum which is a dream for a sizeable proportion of his country’s population.
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Richer by INR 4.8 crore post the first-ever Indian Premier League auction, one shouldn’t blame a rookie player like him to think of ticking one of the boxes in his list of prized possessions so early in his life.
Minutes After Deccan Chargers Bought Him For INR 4.8 Crore, Rohit Sharma Began Dreaming Of Buying A Car
During an interaction with Star Sports in one of their shows ahead of IPL 2023, Rohit Sharma had opened up on what all had been going through his mind after watching franchises bid for him and with Deccan Chargers finally roping him for INR 4.8 crore.
The 36-year-old had revealed that since the bidding amounts were being flashed in dollars, he had very little idea how much the ultimate sum ($750,000) would amount to in the Indian currency. In fact, his name had arrived pretty late during the auction and the moment Chargers sealed the deal, the ever-joyous state of his mind could only think about one thing – ownership of a car.
“Firstly, I didn’t even know how much $750,000 is. My number came very late in the auction, probably after one and half hour. After I was sold, I was told that I was getting $750,000, I think it was 3 to 3.5 crore. But I was really happy and thought about which car should I buy. That was the planning I was doing!”
Until IPL 2008 auction day, Rohit had scored a couple of half-centuries across a 10-match ODI career. Prior to that, in September 2007, he had already played a couple of crucial innings for India during the inaugural edition of ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.
A promising right-handed batter, who is a wonderful timer of the ball and could play a range of shots, was not worth a miss by the franchises. In fact, during one of the interactions with renowned presenter Gaurav Kapur, former Indian captain Virat Kohli had revealed how hyped up Rohit was across the domestic circle and the fact that he always had a second-and-a-half extra than all the other batters before playing the shots.
Rohit Sharma Had Booked A Skoda Without Parents’ Approval
Although the exact model is not known, but Rohit Sharma had indeed went ahead to book a Skoda car in a dream-come-true moment of his life post IPL 2008 auction.
As per a previous year report from Aaj Tak, Rohit’s decision did not go down well with his parents as they were yet to own a house in Mumbai. They had even confronted his childhood coach Dinesh Lad to feed his brain with some appropriate advises on the matter, but Lad requested them to have their son his way.
It is worth of a mention that Rohit was raised by his paternal uncle in Borivali, and began his cricketing journey as a kid at the very suburb in north-western Mumbai. His parents, on the other hand, used to live in Dombivli in Maharashtra’s Thane district. The distance between the two places is approximately 50 km. However, a few years later, he also bought a four-bedroom penthouse in Worli, Mumbai.