‘Chahal TV’ and its gimmicks on the BCCI’s social media handles perhaps gather more hits than his bowling.
On Thursday, Yuzvendra Chahal’s 4/25 against Kolkata Knight Riders fetched him the tag of IPL’s highest wicket-taker — 187 scalps. The first wicket of Nitish Rana saw him overtake Dwayne Bravo’s 183. This was also the seventh time he has taken four or more wickets in an IPL match.
Having lived under the shadows of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the national team, Chahal has never really got the recognition he deserved. The wrist-spinner didn’t play a match in India’s failed campaign in the T20 World Cup in Australia when his presence could have made a difference.
But the slightly built Chahal has never lacked the spark or big-match temperament. Consider this piece of statistics — of all the spinners who have taken 100 or more wickets in the IPL, Chahal’s strike-rate of 16.9 is the best.
To everyone’s utter surprise, RCB decided to let him go ahead of the 2021 mega auction. But Chahal has loved these challenges, bowled with precision in the death overs, picking wickets regularly.
The way he came back after going for 15 runs in his second over on Thursday was inspirational. Venkatesh Iyer tore into him with a six and two boundaries in the 13th over of the KKR innings.
But Iyer’s aggression didn’t force Chahal to curb his attacking instincts. He dared him to go over the top with a fuller length. It was slightly wide and Iyer fell for the bait. A slash over cover resulted in Trent Boult sprinting to hold on to the catch.
Two balls later, Shardul Thakur missed on the sweep and the review ruled in favour of Chahal. Then it was Rinku Singh’s turn to fall prey. The lefthander had picked the wrong’un to go over long off, but the slowness of the track resulted in poor timing.
The last two wickets came at the expense of only seven runs as Chahal showed the way to come back.
