Indian wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal will surely be looking forward to continuing his purple patch when India lock horns with New Zealand in the second T20I at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Saturday.
Chahal was one of the highest wicket-takers in the first match as well — where he ended the innings with 2/26 in four overs — as the hosts defeated the Kiwis by 53 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series.
2017 has been a dream year for Chahal as far in the shortest format of the game. The India spinner has taken this year’s best T20I figures (6/25 v England) and he is only a 3 wickets shy of the top spot in the list of the leading wicket-takers of 2017.
Rashid Khan: 17 wickets in 10 matches
Kesrick Williams: 17 wickets in 9 matches
Yuzvendra Chahal: 14 wickets in 7 matches
Imran Tahir: 14 wickets in 9 matches
Shadab Khan: 14 wickets in 10 matches
Chahal just needs 3 more wickets to surpass both Rashid and Williams record in 2017 but it should be taken into concern that he has played the least amount of matches among the top-5 wicket-takers this year.
Also, amongst the bowlers to have bowled at least 20 overs in T20Is in 2017, Chahal’s bowling strike rate (ball/wicket) is second only to Windies star Williams. Here is the list of the top-5 bowlers according to their strike rates in 2017.
Kesrick Williams: 11.1
Yuzvendra Chahal: 11.7
Lasith Malinga: 12
Rashid Khan: 12.3
Carlos Brathwaite: 12.7
Yuzvendra is also not far behind Ravichandran Ashwin’s record of most T20I wickets taken by an Indian spinner in a calendar year.
Ravichandran Ashwin: 23 wickets in 17 matches (2016)
Ravindra Jadeja: 17 wickets in 17 matches (2016)
Yuvraj Singh: 15 wickets in 10 matches (2012)
Yuzvendra Chahal: 14 wickets in 7 matches (2017)
Ravichandran Aswin: 11 wickets in 7 matches (2014)
Considering the fact that Team India will be playing T20Is this year (2 against New Zealand and 3 against Sri Lanka), and Chahal’s rich wicket-taking run in this year, he can break a bunch of records at the end of this year, especially in T20Is.
