Pravin had an unusual career for a cricketer as he had never played
first-class cricket but was picked for the
Indian Premier League.
Rahul Dravid, his chief mentor at
Rajasthan Royals had said that Praveen Tambe is an even bigger inspiration than himself. During the early seasons of the IPL (in the first five seasons from 2008 to 2012), he worked as a liaison officer for about five years especially whenever matches were conducted at the
DY Patil Stadium in
Navi Mumbai. He received an IPL contract with Rajasthan Royals after being spotted by scouts during an invitational T20 tournament where he was noticed for his ability to bowl great variations of leg spin. It was initially revealed that Tambe was the coach of the B team of the DY Patil Sports Academy in their invitational T20 tournament which was held in January 2013. However, he had to step in as the first-choice bowler in place of injured
Rahul Sharma and Tambe stepped up by taking 12 wickets which helped his team to win the invitational tournament. It was this performance in the invitational tournament that caught attention and helped him get an IPL contract with Rajasthan Royals. Former club-mate and Mumbai selector
Abey Kuruvilla also revealed that Pravin has only peaked over the last 8 years, ever since he switched from bowling
medium pace to
leg spin. During the
2014 Indian Premier League, Pravin took a
hat-trick against
Kolkata Knight Riders on 5 May 2014 in
Ahmedabad by dismissing
Manish Pandey,
Yusuf Pathan and
Ryan ten Doeschate which also helped him to earn the man of the match award. He briefly held the
purple cap in
IPL 2014 up till the 25th match of the tournament. He ended the 2014 IPL season on a high by taking 15 wickets (he was also the leading wicket taker for Rajasthan Royals in 2014 season) although Rajasthan Royals couldn't progress to playoffs after a disastrous loss to
Mumbai Indians. In 2016, he was bought by the
Gujarat Lions franchise for the
2016 Indian Premier League season. In February 2017, Pravin was bought by the
Sunrisers Hyderabad team for the
2017 Indian Premier League for 10
lakhs. In the
2020 IPL auction, he was bought by the
Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the
2020 Indian Premier League. He withdrew his initial retirement decision which he made in 2018 in order to return to IPL in 2020 after being bought by KKR for 20 lakhs in the 2019 auction. However, he was disqualified by the IPL governing body to take part in 2020 IPL after playing in a T10 league without getting proper permission from relevant authorities and for breaching
BCCI's policies. ==T10 Cricket League==