The experienced wristspinner is undergoing a rough phase of his career, with doubts cast on his range and skill bank resulting in lack of opportunities at the top.
Yuzvendra Chahal maybe undergoing a phase of dispensability and carrying a dark cloud over his limited-overs future but the experienced wristspinner says the key for him is to be patient and await his opportunities in an Indian set-up of unprecedented depth.
Chahal, who has lost his place of incumbency as the lead wristspinner to Kuldeep Yadav in ODIs and has multiple younger performers waiting to replace him for T20Is in the pipeline, has played only 2 of India’s 12 ODIs in a World Cup year and featured in five of the team’s seven T20Is played in 2023.
Reduced to a backup tweaker in the 50-overs outfit, Chahal is in the endangered territory of potentially missing out on the One-Day spectacle at home in October-November with both Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel also presenting the team management and selectors depth with bat in hand.
In T20Is, where the 33-year-old played as India’s designated third spinner on a rare white-ball turner in Trinidad against the West Indies this Thursday (August 5), persistent failings and the rise of promising T20 tweakers in the form of Ravi Bishnoi, and Sai Kishore, also poses a major threat to his standing.
Speaking at a pre-match press conference on the eve of the second T20I scheduled on Sunday (August 6) in Guyana versus the Calypso Kings, Yuzvendra Chahal said he has learnt to take the disappointments in his stride, realising it’s not an “individual” game and the key remains to gradually improve and wait for his chances.
“I’m happy that I get a chance to wear the Blue Jersey and I’m not at home but traveling with the team,” Chahal said. “It is not an individual game, I’ve played chess, which is an individual game. This is a team game and when 15 players walk together, out of which 11 plays and we win matches.”
Also Read – Pat Cummins doubtful for India series before World Cup
“I’ve not been playing in the last two-three series. Previously you would have seen me playing in England or West Indies and Kuldeep (Yadav) was not playing then.”
“We need to look at the team combination, you’re playing against whom and where are you playing. If tomorrow there is a turning wicket here then you can also field three spinners in the XI,” he added.
