Yuzvendra Chahal Reveals When He Preferred Cricket Over Chess

It is always a difficult task to kill two birds with one stone. India’s leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has played chess at the junior level and he revealed that it was not easy to focus on two sports at the same time while growing up. Chahal even represented India at the World Youth Chess Championship. Subsequently, he had to make the hard choice that which sport will get more attention from him.

In fact, it is well known that chess is a game of patience. One game of chess can last for days and you need a lot of time if you are professional. On the other hand, one needs to practice for at least six to seven for turning a professional cricketer.

Yuzvendra Chahal has done a fine job for the Indian team.

Consequently, it was a see-saw battle for Yuzvendra Chahal and he had to pick one sport to pursue his career. After coming back from the World Cup, Chahal decided that it is going to be cricket and he would need to give up on his chess dreams.

“I played my first nationals of Chess in 1998 and at that time I was playing cricket as well. You can’t play both sports at the same time. For Chess, you need 10 – 12 hours of training and then 6 – 8 hours for cricket was getting very difficult. So, when I came back from the World Cup, I told my father I will focus only on cricket.” Chahal told S Badrinath on the show Mind Masters by MFORE on Star Sports.

Yuzvendra Chahal will look to continue his good show.