Yuzvendra Chahal, the leg-spinner, turns 35 today. Before he became an international player in 2016, he was already in the radar of cricket fans because of his IPL performances for Royal Challengers Bangalore, led by Virat Kohli.
Chahal became known in his first IPL season for RCB in 2014. Because he bowled well, he played regularly for RCB in the next season. He also bowled some match-winning spells.
In 2016, Chahal got his first chance to play for India when he was picked in the 15-member team for the Zimbabwe tour. He continued to bowl well and slowly became the main spin bowler for India in limited-overs cricket.
Though he hasn’t been at his best in the last few months, he is still a very good bowler. As Chahal turns 35 today, let’s look back at his career and some of his best international performances.
6/42 against Australia, 2019 (ODI)
Australia batted first in the third ODI against India in 2019 and had a bad start, losing two wickets for 27 runs. Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh then added 73 runs to make the batting lineup more stable. But just as they were getting some momentum in the innings, Chahal took three wickets and left Australia struggling at 123/5 in the 30th over. He came back in the last few overs to take three more wickets and help end the Australian innings at 230 in 48.4 overs. Chahal finished the innings with his best figures of 6 for 42 in 10 overs.
5/22 against South Africa, 2018 (ODI)
Chahal’s first five-wicket haul was against South Africa. He broke through the Proteas’ batting lineup and helped India bowl them out for 118 runs at Centurion Ground. Chahal took 5 wickets for 22 runs in 8.1 overs and also bowled a maiden over. India then chased down the score without any trouble, with 30 overs to spare.
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4/46 against South Africa, 2018 (ODI)
Chahal was in good form in the 2018 South Africa series. He and Kuldeep Yadav together took 33 wickets in the six-match series. Chahal bowled well in the third match too, breaking the South African start with his spin. He finished the match with 4 wickets, giving away 46 runs.
6/25 against England, 2017 (T20)
England was chasing a target of 203 set by India and seemed to be in the game, but Chahal’s spin changed things. When England was steady at 119/2 in the 14th over, Chahal took wickets and turned the game completely in India’s favour. He finished his spell with 6 wickets, giving away 25 runs in 4 overs.
