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Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
Camera: Abhishek Ranjan
Yuzvendra Chahal, who has spun out some of the world’s best batsmen since his India debut in 2016, has just returned from his first tour of England.
In an exclusive chat with The Quint, he spoke about scoring his maiden international boundary at Lord’s and about Dhoni taking the ball after the final ODI against England. he also spoke about his dreams of playing Test cricket.
Since playing his first game for India against Zimbabwe in 2016, Chahal has toured South Africa, Sri Lanka and now, England.
After winning the ODI-series opener against the hosts, India lost the next two matches to lose their first bilateral one-day series against this opposition since 2011.
With this loss, India's streak of nine consecutive bilateral series' wins came to a halt. Chahal said it was the English batsmen’s performance in the final two games that made all the difference.
Chahal managed to pick just three wickets in the six games played in the T20 and ODI series. My performance “could have been better,” he admitted.
However, Chahal managed to make a major achievement during the Lord’s ODI – he finally crossed the 1-run mark in ODIs, scoring a 12 against England in the second game. He also scored his first international boundary at the coveted Lord’s stadium, and raised his bat as his teammates cheered him on from the dressing room.
The 27-year-old also put to rest rumours of Dhoni’s retirement – that had begun to make the rounds after the former India captain took the ball after the final ODI at Leeds.
Captain Virat Kohli’s go-to man in the shorter format, Chahal has climbed to the top two in the ICC’s T20 bowler’s rankings. But the dream, he says, is still to play Test cricket.
The ICC World Cup is coming up next year, and Chahal said that his experience playing in England will help him prepare for the tournament.
“I got a better idea of wickets in England. When we start preparing for England again, I’ll see how I want to bowl because the wicket there is bouncy and slow. So I will train according to that. But before that there are 3-4 series, so I’m going to focus on those,” he said.
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