25-year-old right-arm pacer Deepak Chahar is the new sensation in the ongoing IPL 2018. Playing for MS Dhoni-led side Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Chahar is making a good mark with the ball. However, his journey to this level was not so easy as he had been rejected in the early period.
Recently, Chahar had a superb opening spell in their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Hyderabad (Deccan) where he had a bowling figure of 4-0-15-3. His superb bowling provided a great start for his team and ultimately they won the game by a narrow 4-run margin.
Also, he impressed with his earlier spells in the ongoing IPL season.
Chahar plays the domestic cricket for Rajasthan. After making debut in the domestic cricket in 2010, He has played 40 first-class matches, 9 List A games and 30 T20s where he has picked total 162 wickets (113 wickets in first-class cricket, 14 wickets in List A and 35 wickets in T20).
The right-arm pacer came into the limelight first time during his debutant first-class game against Hyderabad at Jaipur in 2010/11 Ranji Trophy. On the very first day, his team Rajasthan bowled out Hyderabad for just 21 runs as 18-year-old Chahar had a remarkable bowling figure of 7.3-2-10-8. It was the lowest total in Indian domestic cricket.
He had also taken 4 wickets in the second innings as his team won the match by an innings and 256 runs, while he had been elected for Player of the Match award. Rajasthan had won their maiden Ranji trophy in that season.
However, earlier in 2008, he had faced a rejection from Greg Chappell, the director of Rajasthan Cricket Association Academy. Former Australian cricketer Chappell believed that Chahar wouldn’t fit for international cricket.
But later, after Chappell’s exit, Tarak Sinha joined in that role and realised the ability of Chahar who had worked hard after facing that rejection. Soon, Chahar started to gain success with the ball in competitive cricket.
His first Ranji trophy captain, Hrishikesh Kanitkar praised him for his steadily bowling improvement along with positive speed increment.
43-year-old Kanitkar told ESPNcricinfo, “When he came on to the domestic scene, Chahar used to bowl around 130kph, but now he has pushed his pace above 135kph because he wanted to play a higher level of cricket. He did not rush into it and, like Bhuvneshwar, he has upped his pace gradually. In one of the IPL matches, I noticed he hit 140kph but swing will be his strength.”
Recently, CSK coach Stephen Fleming also lauded for Chahar’s cricketing ability.
The former New Zealand captain said on that, “He’s been developing over the last two years. He had a very good domestic season. His skill set was something we were very impressed with since the first day. He’s actually a handy batsman as well. We think he’s a fine cricketer. The fact that he swings the ball is important. Lots of trends in the game, obviously wristspinners and swinging the ball are very effective at the moment. And he does that and he does it at good pace too. At the moment he’s around 140 kph, 143 tops. He’s gone really well. He’s got to find and maintain consistency and that will come with experience.”
This is not the first IPL season for Chahar as he made the IPL debut in 2016 for Rising Pune Supergiant.
