From playing tricks on a chessboard to playing chess on a cricket ground, India’s premier white-ball wrist spinner, Yuzvendra Chahal has come a long, long way. (Match Blog | Scorecard |Full Coverage)
A genuine wicket-taker who plays around with the batters’ mind and a hot T20 property somehow missed India’s T20 World Cup flights and has not played a game till date.
The performances? In the five editions of the Indian Premier League, he has picked up a whooping 105 wickets with the economy going over eight just twice.
However, with change being the only constant, it did come. Chahal, who recently rewrote the history books to become the first man on the planet to pick 200 IPL wickets got his well deserved T20 World Cup call-up.
India kicked off their ICC T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on Wednesday, June 5 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. Rohit Sharma called it right at the all-important toss and inserted Paul Stirling’s Ireland to bat first.
While talking about the team combination, India and beyond were eager if Chahal would make his T20 World Cup debut for India, but Rohit at the toss: “We're going to bowl. Preparations have been alright. Have been managing ourselves in these new conditions. Has been challenging but we are all professionals. We played on a similar pitch and do know what to expect a little bit. I know it's going to be slightly different from what we're used to. But that's what the sport is. Not sure about the conditions too much, so thought having a target in front of us would be good. Guys missing out are Kuldeep, Sanju, Jaiswal and one more.”
And the one more? Yuzvendra Chahal. The wrist spinner has 80 T20I caps for India and has picked up 96 wickets at an average of 25.09 and an economy of just 8.19. To add to his T20 CV, he also has picked up two four-fors, one five-for with 6/25 as his best figures.
The surface could have played a part in Chahal missing out from India’s season opener against Ireland but a prime figure not making the squad of India’s last three ICC tournaments is a reminder that sometimes one can work hard, practice harder, prepare the hardest, be as ready as one could be for something and still be told they are not good enough.
