Shoaib Akhtar Feels India Should Not Bench 'Street-Smart' Yuzvendra Chahal

Of late, the Indian National Cricket Team has tried various combinations in the playing XI to figure out the best XI for the team. During the course, the team management often left out one between Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav to adjust the batting order. Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar backed Chahal to play every game for India, as he got high skills to change the complexion of the game.

Chahal doesn’t have the mysterious nature in his bowling like his partner-in-crime Yadav, nor the accuracy-at-pace like the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja.

And yet, Chahal manages an average in the mid-20s across all white-ball formats.

Yuzvendra Chahal is street smart – Shoaib Akhtar

According to Shoaib, it all comes down to how the 29-year-old uses his skills to be effective that stands him out among the rest of the current crop of spinners.

Shoaib added that Chahal should never be kept away from India’s playing XI. Chahal was the lone bright spot in India’s bowling unit in the three-match ODI series which New Zealand won 3-0, picked up six wickets in just two ODIs.

“(Ravindra) Jadeja contains, he gets wickets occasionally, Kuldeep (Yadav) didn’t perform well but (Yuzvendra) Chahal was good. He should never be benched. Chahal has some tricks which can confuse the batsmen. He is a complete leg-spinner. He dominates the batsmen, he is street smart,” said Shoaib Akhtar in his Youtube channel.

Kuldeep Yadav – a worrying factor for India:

Further, Shoaib expressed his surprise to see Kuldeep Yadav leaking runs for the team. He feels Yadav’s form is a worrying sign for India, as none of the other bowlers looked comfortable in picking wickets for the team in middle overs apart from Chahal.

“Kuldeep to me looks to be a bit subdued, he is not playing freely. He was never really in the game, that’s a worrying factor for India. Apart from Chahal, nobody looked like picking wickets in the middle overs,” Akhtar added.

Well, as Shoaib said,  Chahal as the only bowler, who looked threatening New Zealand in the middle.

With ICC T20 World Cup 2020 on its way, India must figure their playing XI as quickly as possible.

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