Yuzvendra Chahal has been in a stellar run of form in limited-overs cricket for India ever since his debut in 2016. He has made almost all batsmen dance to his tunes and his wizardry with the ball has often left the fans speechless, and the batsmen shell-shocked. However, he ran into some difficulty in the recent home series against Australia.
Chahal registered dismal figures of 0/47 in the second T20I against Australia at Bengaluru and then conceded 1/80 in the only ODI he played against the visitors. The Australian batsmen didn’t seem like having any difficulty while facing his deliveries. They were reading him really well and hence, rendered India’s most potent wicket-taking weapon totally ineffective. Thus, with the World Cup knocking on the door, Chahal’s performances in those matches left India in a spot of bother. It seemed like he had been found out and it couldn’t have been at a worse time.
However, the 28-year-old – who was once the under-12 National Chess Champion as well – knows a thing or two about rapid comebacks, and he showed that by returning to his wicket-taking best against Mumbai Indians at Bengaluru on Thursday, 28 March.
Chahal’s superb spell of 4-0-38-4 came on a Chinnaswamy track that was literally a graveyard for bowlers, and may be even worse for spinners in particular. The batsmen were in a murderous mood and the flat nature of the track gave them the confidence to go through with their shot to the spinners without any hesitation.
But Chahal showed his supreme ability to adapt by making subtle changes in pace and lengths of his deliveries. Moreover, he worked the batsmen whenever they tried to unsettle him by moving at the crease or by dancing down the track to him, and kept changing his lengths and areas of pitching accordingly. The idea was to take the deliveries as far away from the batsmen as possible to make it as difficult for them to connect as possible. It was this approach that helped him dismiss Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard in the same over. Both of them were dismissed chasing deliveries pitched wide outside off-stump.
Quinton de Kock was his first wicket of the match whom he dismissed by constantly bowling googlies and sliders on the pads. The pressure created by the dots played forced de Kock into playing a reverse sweep. He failed to make a meaningful contact with the ball and then it went on to crash straight into the stumps. This dismissal also showed Chahal’s control over his accuracy of pitching as that quality is not something that can be associated with wrist spinners regularly.
Hit By Yuvraj for Three Sixes
The most interesting part of his spell, however, was his duel with Yuvraj Singh. The southpaw had come into this match on the back of a superb fifty in their tournament opener against Delhi Capitals at home.
He had momentum on his side and that was exactly what helped him in launching Chahal for three consecutive sixes on the first three deliveries of the 14th over of their innings. For once, it looked like Yuvraj was turning the clock back to his feat of six sixes against Stuart Broad at Kingsmead in 2007. He looked in the mood to go for the full bounty. Chahal, who had been in situations like these before, didn’t seem to have been intimidated by the onslaught but Yuvraj had surely put his adaptive abilities under test.
But just like in chess, one good move is all you need to make a comeback in cricket as well. And just like those numerous occasions in the board game, he found his perfect move for comeback here as well.
Chahal tossed up a nice loopy delivery next, at a slower pace and just wide of the off-stump, and it had done the trick for him. Yuvraj went for the kill once again but this time ended up slicing it straight into the hands of Mohammad Siraj at long-off. The duel came to an end and it was Chahal who had the last laugh. But what it brought to fore once again was Chahal’s supreme adapting capability.
In this world of technology, no bowler can keep his secrets to himself for a long time. Videos are seen again and again by people sitting in the backroom to give batsmen the insight and knowledge about every new bowler, so that they can have the upper hand over them. So it becomes equally important for bowlers to keep observing the batsmen and learn new things about them with every game as well.
“Everyone has your videos. If you’re trying some new variation then you don’t want to show it to everyone, but my variations, there’s not much difference – you can find everything on YouTube. The more I bowl to batsmen, big hitters, I get an idea as to where I shouldn’t bowl to them. If they are getting a look at me, I’m also getting a look at them. I’ll bowl to them and learn,” Chahal had said in an interaction with The Hindu during a training session with Royal Challengers Bangalore a week ago.
After this spell, Chahal has 53 T20 wickets to his name at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 40 matches at an excellent average of 19.68. To have such a splendid record in a small ground like the Chinnaswamy, that too on a deck that is a nightmare for bowlers, tells a lot about the quality of Chahal as a bowler. Although this cracker of a spell came in a loss for his team, his performance has certainly assured everyone who doubted his prowess and abilities after his minor blip during the series against Australia.
He looks all set to have a stellar IPL season once again, and carrying the good form from this tournament into the World Cup in June will surely make the task a lot easier for him.
(Prasenjit Dey is a freelance cricket writer. He can be reached at @CricPrasen. The opinions expressed are the author’s own and The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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