The Indian leg-spinner, Yuzvendra Chahal wasn’t been able to return to the first-class cricket after a gap of two long years and now he is one of the most love senior in India A team. In the current A team, there is no one who has played more international games than him and because of which he also got to spend more time with the stalwarts like Virat Kohli and M. S. Dhoni on a daily basis, which helped him to work on his game as much as possible.
Recently, after a neutral tour of England, Chahal joined back the A team to sharpen his red-ball skills, after becoming a prolific bowler in the limited overs cricket only in 52 international games. Talking about the same, Chahal said, “There is no pressure on the batsmen here. In limited-overs, if there is a run-rate pressure, the batters try you out, but here, a bowler would need to use his skills to get the batsmen out, use the brains a bit more. You may have to bowl 30 to 35 overs also, as against four overs or 10 overs.”
ALSO READ: Dhoni Gave A Quirky Nickname To Yuzvendra Chahal
However, in past one year or so, Chahal has been India’s go-to bowler in white-ball, especially after his exploits in the home series against a strong team like Australia. But, because of his consistent performances in the following series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa, he hasn’t been able to weave his magic in the domestic cricket after the Haryana-Jharkhand Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in 2016.
In 2017, while training at the National Cricket Academy after the series against New Zealand, the Indian team management asked its limited-overs specialists to skip the Ranji games. Though Chahal wanted to play for Haryana, the BCCI was in no mood of making him injury prone and in order to compensate those lost times, he joined the A side.
On Day 2 of the second unofficial Test against South Africa A, Yuzvendra took a couple of wickets and talking about his performance, he said, “If you are playing Test matches, your bowling will improve and your mind will be sharp. You need to adjust and think how you can get a batsman out, especially on a wicket like this, where there is no help for the spinners. There is no turn at all. You need more planning in such situations. You need to have an idea about the field set-up.”
ALSO READ: Rahul Dravid’s Advice To Yuzvendra Chahal
He further added, “The turn was around the fourth or the fifth stump, and there was no assistance from the middle. Our idea was to pack the off-side and make the South Africans drive the ball. I planned it with Iyer (Shreyas). Even if there was a good shot, it would only be a single.”
Chahal concluded by stating that he doesn’t want to make his way in the Test squad in a hurry as he would like to follow the protocol. He explained that bowling a good delivery and getting a wicket on a good delivery are two different things, a good Test bowler need the latter.
