Yuzvendra Chahal Hoping To Make India A Chance Count

Just a few months ago, Yuzvendra Chahal seemed to have make a huge breakthrough in his international career with his sensational six-wicket haul against England to steer India to a series win against the Three Lions in the T20 series. His 6 for 25 is the best figures by an Indian bowler in T20Is and it looked like he would get an extended rope to cement his spot in the team.

However, the leg-spinner has now fallen out of favour with Kuldeep Yadav firmly staking a claim as  a regular starter in the playing eleven even ahead of the incumbent spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Chahal was ignored for the Champions Trophy after an indifferent showing in the Indian Premier League and suffered the same fate for the West Indies tour. However, the 26-year old will have a chance to impress the selectors in the upcoming tour of South Africa with India A.

And although Kuldeep is getting the chances ahead of him, Chahal is not at all bothered and said the chinaman spinner deserves his place in the team.

“Kuldeep is a special talent. There is no other ‘Chinaman’ bowler in the country better than him. He deserved his place in the national team. The Champions Trophy and West Indies tour are over now, so there is no point in discussing about them. There are certain things which are not in anyone’s control,” he told The Hindustan Times.

“My job is to perform and give my best. I am training hard ahead of the India‘A’ tour to South Africa. I would aim to play to my potential and do well for the team,” he added.

The right-arm spinner who first grabbed the attention for his performances in the Indian Premier League failed to live up to the expectations this season, picking just 14 wickets in 13 matches. Speaking about that, he said” “The streak of regular losses in the competition did rankle the RCB team. My confidence as a bowler was shaken too in the mid-way. Thereafter, Virat paaji and coach Daniel Vettori intervened and infused confidence in me. It really got me going again.”

With the South African pitches likely to offer little assistance to the spinners, Chahal will have has task cut out on the unfavourable pitches but he is confident he has the ability to do well on such tracks.

“It is most challenging for a spinner to bowl on flat wickets. To be able to extract slight turn and bounce on such wickets and mixing the deliveries in order to keep the batsman in check is a big task. I am such a bowler who loves this challenge of bowling on flat wickets. I have been doing a lot of work on my variations lately. I hope to apply these in South Africa and with coach Rahul Dravid’s experience, do well,” said the leggie.