Yuzvendra Chahal first represented India as a chess player in his teens when he competed in the Asian and World Youth Chess championships. An astute thinker and a shrewd player, Chahal was a master on the 64 squares. That kind of tactful thinking has made him a real force to reckon with in limited-overs cricket, where his future is safely set in stone.
Just a few months back, India were content with having Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as their primary spinners, while Amit Mishra or Axar Patel donned the role of back-up spinners. Players like Yuzvendra Chahal, Parvez Rasool and Kuldeep Yadav had to wait for a Zimbabwean series, for which the management didn’t mind sending second string teams.
But a major upset in the Champions Trophy final at the hands of Pakistan forced a complete revamp of India’s spin bowling department. Ashwin, Jadeja and Mishra were left in the cold as the younger players took the centre stage. And the major beneficiaries of this were Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
What possibly could have worried the two was that they were both wrist spinners and teams aren't known to play more than one of that kind in the starting XI. However, India was prepared to question the convention and decided to pair two wrist spinners together.
But with Axar Patel also available, the selectors wanted to explore their options, which once again meant a toss between Kuldeep and Chahal. At this stage, Chahal won the battle hands down, although Kuldeep was the more lauded and recognised mystery spinner.
There must’ve been a reason for this seemingly bizarre choice. There was.
In modern day limited-overs cricket, the job of a spinner lies in being able to contain the big hitters or send them back as quickly as possible. Chahal has been mindbogglingly successful at this so far, with his tactics fine tuned in his mind a hundred times before he employs them on the field.
Chahal against big hitters has been the battle of the season so far.
When the Australians landed in India, boasting of a strong lower middle-order comprising three big hitters – Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and James Faulkner – India’s choice of playing the two wrist spinners was expected to backfire.
And in the first ODI of the series in Chennai, Maxwell threatened to do just that when he smashed Kuldeep Yadav for a hat-trick of sixes. He plonked his big foot forward, unleashed the sweep and took young Kuldeep to the cleaners. In a rain-shortened 21 over game, these sixes could have hurt big but Kohli trusted Chahal to do the job.
Chahal got hit for a maximum but the bowler had a back-up plan in place. The leggie bowled it full and wide of off-stump, forcing Maxwell, who loves to swipe across the line, to drag the lofted shot in the air. The Big Show holed out and India had found a major breakthrough.
Four overs later, Matthew Wade stepped down the track to take on Chahal and once again the leggie shortened his length and landed it wide outside. The Aussie keeper missed his flash and Dhoni did the rest behind the stumps. India wrapped the game up with Chahal grabbing figures of 3/30.
At first glance, it might seem like a stroke of luck that a wide ball fetched him a wicket. But cometh Pune and New Zealand, Chahal used the very same technique to plot the downfall of Colin de Grandhomme, another big hitter, another player who loves swiping across the line.
De Grandhomme was on 41 and looking dangerous enough to lift New Zealand from a below par start to a fine total. He had attacked Kedar Jadhav and Axar Patel with success and looked set to launch New Zealand to a winning total when Chahal landed one on the wide line and eked out an edge off his swishing willow. A breakthrough was created and New Zealand never really recovered from it.
Luck?
Think again.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore spinner has used this gambit quite often in limited-overs cricket and with massive success. That it is a deliberate ruse is confirmed from an interview he gave to ESPNCricinfo:
Whenever I bowled to Gayle [in the RCB nets] I would bowl well wide outside off, and work out that if he isn’t able to hit me then I can try this against Warner and the likes.
During the Australian series, Chahal succeeded against the likes of Stoinis, Wade, Maxwell, and Faulkner with his strange yet sensible tactic. He does the same to Colin de Grandhomme and Mitchell Santner and there is no reason to believe that he couldn't pull it off against bigger big-hitters.
In T20s, Chahal has been extremely successful, picking up 12 wickets in 6 matches this year, including a career best 6/25 against England. He averages just 15 and is a huge threat in the middle-overs with his quickish leg-spinners and tricky googly.
And the wide ball, which seems a weapon in itself, and you have a match-winner with an X-factor in the shorter formats of the game. His cleverness and thinking has transcended from chess to cricket quite seamlessly and could even fetch him a few overs at the death.
(Rohit Sankar is a freelance cricket writer. He can be reached at @imRohit_SN)
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)