Yuzvendra Chahal is on the verge of achieving the most deserved milestone in the One Day International (ODI) format. The right-arm twitcher is a skull away from the century of the wickets in the game’s brief form that was first played 51 years ago in Melbourne since the first three days of the Ashes Test between Australia and England.
The 31-year-old legspinner from Haryana, and who has a background as a national-level chess player, is one of the few to have an unconventional and tough trade in international cricket these days. He has played 59 matches so far and has taken 99 wickets at a very frugal 27.88 and strike-rate of 32.19. He has twice taken five wickets in his five-year ODI career, in which he made his debut against Zimbabwe in Harare in June 2016.
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In the calendar years from 2017 to 2019, he made it rich with 21 wickets in 2017 and 29 wickets in 2018 and 2019. His best is 6/42 against Australia in Melbourne in January 2019. The pandemic didn’t give him a chance. Improve his skills and numbers, but he has undoubtedly been at the forefront of India’s spin attack along with left-arm tweaker Kuldeep Yadav.
Chahal has featured in 40 matches that India won from 2016 to 2021 when a team led by Shikhar Dhawan played a three-match series against Sri Lanka in Colombo. He has played against 11 countries in the format and is in double digits (between 16 and 22) against Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
He was one of the leading bowlers for India in the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. Chahal took 12 wickets for 36.83 runs in 74 overs. Once the team disbanded the pairing of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final, the wrist spin duo of Chahal and Yadav have played 35 matches and taken 71 wickets, second only to Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar. Third best Indian pair. (131 wickets in 167 innings), and Ashwin and Jadeja (128 wickets in 84 innings).
For a steady and reasonably successful spinner, Chahal has lost 44 matches since making his debut.
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He has also been a part of India’s Twenty20 plan, but was dropped for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates last year. The selectors picked Rahul Chahar.
Former Mumbai off-spinner Kiran Mokashi – he took 147 wickets in ten years of Ranji Trophy – has the following observations to build on Chahal. A keen student of the game and one who bowled brilliantly to Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy net session, Mokashi said: “The Indian selectors’ thinking of the required legspinners for the UAE pitches for the Twenty20 World Cup didn’t work. .. His decision, that you would need leg-spinners to bowl fast on slow flat pitches and small grounds, did not come true.
“At first, Varun Chakraborty’s pace was ideal to turn him around as the ball was not catching; Also the batsmen judged him for playing more as an offspinner. Leggie Rahul Chahar also could not bowl at the ideal pace to spin the ball. This is where Chahal, who was part of the Twenty20 plan till mid-2021, would have been an ideal attacking bowler. But it was removed.”
He continued, “Chahal is a traditional leg-spinner who has the skill of applying a lot of spin to the ball, which results in the ball falling and drifting. His control over the various lines, his decision to bowl at the right pace and flight for various batsmen proves to be a great asset. His IPL record is excellent with two five-fors and one six in the restricted overs that he bowls.
“He has the heart and mind for an aggressive legspinner, all he needs is the support of the captain and the team management. In addition, they do not require abrasive pitches at all times, as their ability to provide rotation and their control over flight and drift make them essential attacking wicket-takers in white-ball competitions. Remember, a bowler who takes more wickets than a restrictive bowler wins you the match.”
The leg spin and googly variety – discovered by a former Middlesex and England bowler with the tennis ball, Bernard James Tindall Bosanquet, in the late 19th or early 20th century – is a difficult art. Legspinners have taken 7787 wickets in Test cricket so far, but Chahal hasn’t played a single Test.
Seventeen legspinners have taken over 100 Test wickets, with Shane Warne at the top with 708 victims. Chahal will be the 14th legspinner to touch the three-figure mark in ODIs. Among Indian wrist spinners, Kumble has 337 and Kuldeep has 107. He will have the luxury of bowling alongside Kuldeep in the ODI series against West Indies in Ahmedabad, where the Narendra Modi Stadium surface will assist the spinners.
He has clean bowled 11 batsmen, caught 23 leg first, stumped 10 batsmen, took 55 catches (43 in the outfield and five by the wicket-keeper and seven by his own bowling). And leading up to the white-ball World Cup in Australia in 2022 and India in 2023 will be keen and eager to give a good account of itself.
With the framing of the rookie Ravi Bishnoi, Chahal has finished his work. But the point of interest is which West Indies batsman became his 100th victim in ODIs. This memorable event for Chahal can happen in the first ODI in Ahmedabad on 6 February. Should he be fielded, which skipper Rohit Sharma can do, it will be Chahal’s 15th match at home. He has taken 22 wickets in the country and 77 abroad!
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