The Indian squad for the T20 World Cup 2021 was a bag full of surprises. The selectors preferred Rahul Chahar over Yuzvendra Chahal, stating that they ‘wanted someone who bowls fast and gets pace off the pitch and also gets the ball to grip through the surface.’ Kuldeep Yadav was also sidelined and ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy was included in the mix. Above all, the return of Ravichandran Ashwin to the limited-overs set-up after 7 years raised quite a few eyebrows.
Later, India had a horrendous campaign in the marquee event. They lost back-to-back games, to Pakistan and New Zealand, which narrowed their chances of making it to the knockout stages. They did manage to win the rest of the games, against Afghanistan, Namibia, and Scotland, but it was too late by then.
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Things began taking turns since India’s exit from the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year. The new captain and coach duo has thoroughly been engaged in the process of segregating a strong team that can shrug off last year’s humiliation in Australia and Chahal is definitely in the scheme of things.
The leg-spinner has been in great nick lately. In IPL 2022, he ended as the leading wicket-taker with 27 wickets in 17 matches, maintaining an average of 19.51 and an economy of 7.75. He has been leading India’s spin attack currently and will be back in action in the upcoming Asia Cup 2022, starting Saturday in the UAE.
Chahal recently recalled the heart-breaking snub. Speaking with YouTube Channel Sports Yaari, he said, “I never asked anyone why (about the 2021 World Cup snub) because that’s not in my control. Obviously, you feel bad that you aren’t a part of the World Cup, but they might have thought that someone else was better and fair enough.”
“What was in my hands was performing and that’s exactly what I did in the second half of the IPL 2021 in the UAE,” he added.
Chahal further stated that it was skipper Rohit Sharma who told him about his role in the Indian team, which also included bowling in death overs. The leggie explained how his stint with the new franchise, Rajasthan Royals, helped him hone his skillset.
“Before heading to the IPL, Rohit Bhaiya told me that I might need to bowl at different stages of the game and even at the death. Rahul sir had also told me to work on my fuller deliveries. So, when I went to the Rajasthan Royals, I spoke to Sanju and he supported me and said that I will bowl an over at the death, no matter how many runs I go for.
“I started practising yorkers on single wicket and used variations like cross seam. I kept on asking the batters how much I was missing the yorker by and all the feedback really helped me,” Chahal explained,” Chahal said.
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