“We lost, but I’m happy I was not bowling today,” said
Australian opener Aaron Finch, fours years ago, empathising with bowlers as
India chased down a steep target of 202 in the only T20I at Rajkot. The two
ODIs have accrued a combined 642 and 532 runs. The only Test featured five hundreds
— what better proof of the strip’s inherent friendliness than three Englishmen
getting centuries—and the only draw of the five-match series.
But ahead of the second T20I, India’s skipper Virat Kohli
needn’t bother about the venue’s reputation. Not least when he has two
exceptionally canny bowlers, in Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Jasprit Bumrah’s gifts are well-documented. But of late, it
has been Chahal, with his unconventional trickery and the knack of prising out
the opponent’s most destructive batsman, who has been his most trusted
short-form bowler.In his shortish career, he has furnished ample proof of his
big-scalp hunting trait. In the first T20 of this series, at Kotla, a well-set
Tom Latham was just beginning to open up. He confidently shimmied down the
track. But Chahal had second-guessed it and bowled a flat googly that beat him
all ends up to be stumped.
Batsmen tend to underestimate him; Chahal, in turn, feeds on
this assumption. Two months ago, Glenn Maxwell learned it the hard way. He had
just belted Kuldeep Yadav for a four and three sixes on the bounce. Chahal then
was brutally swept over the square-leg fence. Generally, spinners tend to
respond by shortening the length and minimising the flight. But Chahal floated
one up more than he generally does and wider of the off-stump. Maxwell reached
for it, only for the ball to spin precociously away from him. He eventually
miscued the ball to long-on, and snuffed Australia’s last hopes of winning the
match.
The remarkable thing about him is that he procures turn
without flighting the ball or imparting numerous revvs, which is the
conventional wisdom. Also, unlike conventional spinners, he bowls googlies from
closer to the stumps, conjuring a difficult angle, especially for left-handed batsmen.
The release points for his leg-break and googly are more or
less the same as well.
Ashwani Kumar, the Haryana Cricket Association’s director of
coaching, who has been nurturing Chahal for the past 13 years, reckons its his
slight frame that makes him unconventional. “Because of his physique, his
action is a little different from a conventional leg-spinner. His bowling
trajectory is lower. He becomes a bit round-arm while bowling his leg-breaks,
which gives him extra turn. He uses both his wrist and fingers,” he tells The
Indian Express.
‘Single haddi’
Chahal was called ‘single haddi (bone)’ by his friends
because of his frame. But it turned out to be an advantage, because he
developed a unique bowling action. But inside the lithe frame is a brain that’s
constantly ticking, a reason he out-reads the batsman so spectacularly. “Even
in junior cricket, he had this ability. Maybe, it’s natural. With experience,
his mind has become sharper,” he says. Maybe, it was his chess background that
makes him an astute reader of mind.The presence of an equally shrewd, MS Dhoni,
behind the stumps, has benefitted him. At Chepauk, the stump mic caught Dhoni
rattling out instructions before every ball.
Like, “Woh maarane waala daal naa, andar yaa baahar koi bhi.
Ghumane waala daal ghumane waal (tempt him to hit, incoming or outgoing,
anything is fine. Make the ball rip). They’d combined to dismiss Maxwell thrice
in five ODIs. Despite his lean frame, he is quite fit, and capable of bowling
long spells in the longer versions.
“There’s huge emphasis on fitness in the Haryana teams
across age-groups. Our fitness trainer Tejinder Mann and physio Amit Tyagi;
they prepare the schedule. Certain parameters are set. Every cricketer goes
through the schedule for one-and-a-half hours every day. For the juniors, the
fitness level is checked fortnightly. At senior level, we do it monthly. Even
during off seasons, young cricketers come to the stadium at Lahli and perform
the fitness drills. Every cricketer has his individual fitness programme as
well. Chahal has come through this process,” Kumar says.
The upside of Chahal’s strong fitness regime is that he can
pick his food menu as per his choice. The 27-year-old likes chicken and his
coach’s advice to him is that he should eat “a little more”.
In the current Indian team some mandatory fitness parameters
are set. The pass mark on the ‘yo-yo’ scale is 16.1, which is non-negotiable.
This has been agreed upon with an eye to become the world’s best fielding side
before the 2019 World Cup. Chahal is an integral part of the set-up.
With the rapid strides he’s making, it’s imminent that his
name will be in consideration for Tests too. Kumar believes he has the ability
to prosper. “Of course he has. He is intelligent and a quick learner. He is
working on his flight and variations required for Test cricket,” Chahal’s coach
said. But as of now, he’s Kohli most-trusted short-form spinner.
