IPL 2021: I Am Pretty Happy With The Way Rahul Chahar Is Bowling, States Zaheer Khan
Published - 27 Sep 2021, 04:51 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:56 AM
Mumbai Indians Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan said that he is happy with the way leg-spinner Rahul Chahar is bowling.
Chahar, who picked 11 wickets for Mumbai Indians in the first leg of the tournament, has only managed to pick a single wicket in the last three matches.
Chahar got the wicket of RCB wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat but not before the batsman hammered him for a couple of sixes in the match. Chahar ended with figures of 1/33 after bowling four overs.
I don’t see any issues around Rahul Chahar’s confidence: Zaheer Khan
Zaheer feels that when you are having a tough time in the game, it is very difficult to catch with the rhythm and said that Chahar is bowling with enough confidence.
“If you are just equating it to the number of wickets, you can say that (his form a concern for MI). But I am pretty happy with the way he is bowling. The ball coming out of his hand is absolutely fine. It’s just that in the situation of the game, you are not in that position; you can look at it that way,” Zaheer said in a virtual press conference.
“In terms of confidence, he is right up there. I don’t see any issues around that. It’s just about having a few tough games, when things are going tough, at times, you don’t have the rhythm going,” he added.
We have been playing well in patches, but not really able to sustain it: Zaheer Khan
Mumbai Indians lost to Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore by 54 runs even after being in a commanding position to chase 166 as openers Rohit Sharma (43) and Quinton de Kock (24) had set the tone with their brisk partnership of 57 runs.
Once Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Glenn Maxwell in the 10th over, the MI innings slipped out of the chase as RCB skittled down them to 111.
Mumbai Indians have lost their third match in a row since the IPL 2021 resumed in the UAE. However, Zaheer feels the team has to display hunger and determination in order to win all their remaining fixtures to keep their chances alive in the tournament.
“We have not been able to get ourselves going. We have to play 40 good overs of cricket. We have been playing well in patches, but not really able to sustain it.”
“We don’t have a lot of time now. So we have to really get things going fast. It’s going to be must-win games for us coming up. Very important that the team sticks together. That hunger and determination are going to be important.
“We have got to believe. This team has done that in the past, and there is no reason to believe we can’t. But the way MI has known in terms of dominating cricket and that aggressive nature of playing cricket, so far we have not seen,” Zaheer added.
MI will play KL Rahul’s Punjab Kings on Tuesday (September 28) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
