One of the finest things that Indian Premier League has done to Indian cricket is to provide this Indian team with the luxury of a fantastic bench strength and genuine match winners, especially in the shortest format of the game. This has made life easier for aspiring youngsters because now it isn’t mandatory for a youngster to have a good first class career to get noticed by the national selectors and captain, but a consistent IPL performance is all that is required. And Yuzvendra Chahal in no hyperbolic sense is a product of IPL, who like many of his teammates like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya have broken into the Indian team on the back of their IPL performances rather than taking the conventional first-class route, as is evident from their record. Had R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja been not rested, he would not have even played the match.
Chahal only played 27 first class matches since his debut in 2009 and seven of these 27 have come this season. Even in IPL when playing for the Mumbai Indians he got only seven games between 2011 and 2013 and his major contributions included a 2 for 9 spell at the Champions League final. Yet it was only when Chahal was picked by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) that he immediately made a mark.
One of the good things about Chahal’s style of bowling is that he is fearless. He isn’t afraid of the short Chinnaswamy boundaries or of being hit for a six out of the ground. He would stick to his plans, flight the ball, vary his pace, bowl his flippers and googly and will have the heart to do that again and again. He managed 12 wickets in his first season with the RCB, almost double in his second. In IPL 2016, when RCB reached the finals, he took 21 wickets, being the second leading wicket taker of the season but was overshadowed, as he has always been for the majority of his career, this time around by the team’s batting power.
But the night of 1st February 2017, Chahal played the lead role, it helped that the venue was Bangalore and captain was Virat, who also leads the RCB. And there wasn’t any looking back. Even though he went for runs early on, he bowled with a heart and stuck to his plans brilliantly displaying his skill and range. He got Eoin Morgan on a googly, and Joe Root with a quicker one off successive deliveries probably the game’s biggest turning point.
England could still have revived having the likes of Moeen Ali still there in their side but Chahal had the better of them and completely changed the complexion of the match picking up five wickets in two overs adding that to his first wicket taken in the power-play.
"It's like a home ground match for me," Chahal said. "I've not played too many series for India. Whenever I come to Bangalore, I get a vibe. I feel at home here as I've spent three seasons with RCB now."
Chahal picked up the best figures by an Indian bower in T20I and the third best overall, in just his 9th game as part of the Indian Cricket Team. This haul sets him up perfectly for IPL and is only safe to say that this haul could only be few of the many things that Chahal would achieve in Indian jersey.
