Veteran Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal commented after retiring from red-ball cricket. He recently retired from the format after last playing in the County Championship as well. Chahal never played Test cricket for India, and he realised it realistically wouldn’t happen, so he decided to focus on white-ball cricket as well.

“Now I am 36. I know I will never play Tests. So I thought I should focus more on white-ball cricket. It was a bit difficult because my journey started with red-ball cricket, and it was my dream to play Test cricket. Everyone labels you as a ‘Test specialist’, but no one says he is an ‘ODI player’ or ‘T20 player’. So when you get that Test cap, it is a different thing. I will miss playing red-ball cricket. But times come when you have to make some decisions, and this was one of those,” he said during a podcast with former cricketer Aakash Chopra.

He again shared, “People think I never played enough first-class cricket. But when I came, Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav were already in the team. I would not get a lot of chances. In 2016, for the first time, I played five matches in a row. But I got a side strain then. Then I started playing for India in 2017, and it would collide with the Ranji Trophy most of the time. Would I leave playing for India and go play Ranji? I would keep travelling, and there were back-to-back series. If I did not want to play red-ball cricket, why would I go play County cricket?”

READ HERE: “He is not here for the milestones” – Hanuma Vihari on Virat Kohli

However, Yuzvendra Chahal also said that he was close to a Test call-up for India but missed out as the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Kuldeep Yadav were already in the team as well.

“In 2017-19, I was close to getting in the Test team. But again, Jadeja and Ashwin were already there. Kuldeep was there too. It’s like you were born in the wrong era. It will stay with me that I never played Tests for India. It just never worked out. Now I am 36. I know it is not happening. So there is no point in playing for Haryana also and taking the spot of a youngster. There is no motive for me now. So it does not make sense anymore,” he said.

“That is why I left red-ball so that I can focus more on white-ball and work harder. Till I completely retire, the dream to play for India again will always be there. I have money. So IPL is not for the money. But that feeling of wearing the India jersey again, there is nothing bigger than that. If that was not there, I would have retired from all formats,” he concluded.