Experienced leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has revealed some insights into his early IPL career with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He shared how was his interactions with Virat Kohli and then head coach Daniel Vettori.
In an interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube show “DRS with Ash”, Chahal revealed that he was very aggressive when he first joined RCB way back in 2014. He said he and Vettori used to get into trouble with the match referee for giving the batsmen send-offs.
Chahal said: “I have known Virat bhaiya since our Under-15 days. We played in Under-15 together for one year… When I joined RCB in 2014, I was a little nervous. He will be standing at covers, fully energetic, as always. I was a youngster and had that aggression in me as well. So in those days, whenever I used to take a wicket, I would charge aggressively towards the batsman. It happened 2-3 times and the match referee complained to Daniel Vettori.”
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However, Yzvendra Chahal further revealed one incident, which prompted Vettori to come up with a unique solution. The former New Zealand spinner asked Chahal to charge towards Virat Kohli at covers instead of the batsmen.
The leg-spinner elaborated: “In one match, something slipped out of my tongue… I won’t say it here (chuckles). Then Vettori sir came to me and he said, ‘This is not good. You have the potential [only] if you can change this thing. If you want to charge at someone then do it towards covers, Virat stands there, say whatever you want to him, he won’t mind!'”
He continued: “From there I realized that he used to radiate energy with his positivity. And he never tried to change me, in the sense that he never told me ‘Yuzi bowl like this or that.’ We always had two plans but the first would also be mine. He used to ask me to plan however I want to and it really helps you as a bowler. He used to give me whatever field I would ask for… That really gives you a lot of confidence when it comes from a big player like him who’s also the captain.”
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Yuzvendra Chahal has played for eight years (2014-2021) under Virat Kohli’s captaincy at the RCB, becoming the top wicket-taker for RCB with 139 scalps. However, RCB didn’t win a single trophy so far. Meanwhile, RCB didn’t retain Chahal for IPL 2022 as well.
“I was playing a match against Chennai in my first season. And Raina bhaiya hit me for three consecutive sixes which didn’t happen to me before that. Virat bhaiya came from long-on and said, ‘Yuzi, chill. Even if you get hit for six sixes it’s no big deal but keep bowling your best balls, don’t try to be defensive.’ And then I got Raina bhaiya out on the fourth ball before dismissing Mahi bhai in the next over,” Yuzvendra Chahal concluded.
