Googly guy: Underestimate Chahal at your own peril

With 21 wickets, Chahal is the third highest wicket-taker this IPL season.

Scrawny, gaunt, and with a botched attempt at spiked hair, Yuzvendra Chahal doesn’t quite give the image of a stereotypical glamorous IPL cricketer. But he is the quintessential IPL player. Not many would have seen any of the 17 first-class matches he has played for Haryana in the last five seasons. It’s as if there is no evidence of him ever bowling the fifth over in a game. A life seemingly lived in summer nights of April and May; as if once he goes out of the television screens at the end of IPL, there is no trace of him anywhere.

For the last two years he has been spotted in the telly under RCB colours and has attracted attention with his energy, smart, and audacious bowling. Before Bangalore, he was in Mumbai Indians squad and though he got just one game in three years for them, you couldn’t have missed him if you were at the ground. He would pop out in the strategy breaks with the drinks, and every time the cameras would scan the dug out at fall of wickets, he would be one of the more animated faces captured.

In Bangalore, too, he quickly became one of the more popular characters in the team. But it’s his bowling that would have gladdened the hearts of the purists out there.

He is from the disappearing breed of spinners — one who isn’t afraid to get hit. He is the answer to the pub-quiz question: Who is the bowler who has conceded the most sixes in this IPL? However, it isn’t a masochistic trait as he has this knack of buying wickets. He deservedly sits behind Dwayne Bravo (23) and Lasith Malinga (22) in the best bowler’s column with 21 scalps.

In some ways, Chahal’s selection is a tribute to the attacking captaincy of Virat Kohli. Chahal is the man Kohli turns to when he is desperate for a breakthrough. So, even as his economy rate is high — at 9.45 (before the eliminator) his is the second worse after Shane Watson who had conceded 0.03 runs more but unlike Watson, Chahal’s bowling average is an impressive 18.42.

Foxing the best

And his strike rate of 12.2 has convinced his captain to keep picking him. What sets him apart and makes him an interesting legspinner is how obstinately he sticks to the orthodox and the classical. He has represented India at Chess at the junior level, and though he might no longer be maneuvering the little pieces on the board, he seems to love thinking out and setting up batsmen.

Sample his dismissal of Gautam Gambhir in his first game. Gambhir was already past his fifty and had just stepped out to loft Chahal to the midwicket boundary. Unsurprisingly, in the next over, Chahal didn’t shy away from tossing up the ball but this time around, he pulled back his length by a yard. And Gambhir failed to reach the pitch of the delivery and ended up scooping the ball. In the next game, he was up against Hyderabad’s David Warner who had already plundered 57 from just 26 deliveries when Kohli turned to Chahal. And Warner promptly smashed him for a huge six. Would Chahal continue to toss them up? Of course he did. Three conventional legspinners arrived before with a set on-side field he flighted one more.

Unable to resist, Warner went for it but the ball wasn’t there where he thought it would be. Yet again, the wiry little man had dragged back the length and Warner was trapped by his own aggression.

Another facet of this aggressive spinner is how he keeps varying the pace.

A look at his bowling speeds reveals that he keeps trudging between 85 kmph and 95 kmph. His speed graph looks like an ECG but with smaller spikes.

Unlike Imran Tahir, who imparts speed on his flippers and quickers one and reduces the speed on his conventional legbreaks, Chahal is smarter in varying his speeds. Lesser variation in speed means he tempts the batsmen to fall into same trap again and again. The speed doesn’t change drastically but the dropping of few kmphs aligned with the alteration of length upsets the timing of the batsmen.

At times, he doesn’t change the length but gets the batsmen by subtle change of line. With everything else almost similar – the pace, the length and the turn, the batsmen seem to think they can dispatch this too but the change in line and trajectory acts as a great foil. More evidence of this came in the game against Chennai where he gave away 40 runs but picked up three important scalps of Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni. Raina’s dismissal in particular captured this part of his art well.

Raina had tonked him for three sixes in his third over and Chahal still tossed up the fifth delivery. But this one drifted outside off stump and Raina, who was charging down, couldn’t quite manage to time his aggressive heave and threw his wicket away.

Similarly, in the RCB’s final league game against Delhi, Yuvraj’s wicket had the Chahal stamp all over it. Yuvraj had swung Chahal beyond deep mid-wicket before the bowler drifted a flighted delivery outside off-stump. Yuvraj fell for the bait and was pouched at long-off.

Those little changes in pace too has served him well, especially aligned with his bravely flighted legspinners.

In the 12th game, against Punjab at Mohali, Chahal went for 25 in his two overs but he took out David Miller and George Bailey, who were beginning to take control of the game.

Despite getting hit for two consecutive sixes (second of which was actually a dropped chance), Chahal saw Miller charging early and bowled a quicker delivery to get his man. The pattern of buying wickets has continued through the tournament. Against Mumbai, he foxed Pandya who had stepped down to hit him for another maximum.

Harbhajan Singh, who has seen Chahal’s progression as a youngster from his Mumbai Indians days attests to his wicket-taking ability. “Chahal has improved a lot since he made his debut for Mumbai Indians. He has good control over the ball and it is not easy for batsman to step out against him. If you look at his bowling, he hardly bowls a short ball. He has a nice trajectory which many bowlers lack. If he keeps working hard than he has a bright future,” says the India off-spinner.

Usually bowlers fluctuate their lengths once they start getting hit. But Chahal’s pitch maps are quite clustered on the good length area, which holds up Harbhajan’s observations. This shows that he trusts himself that as a legspinner he can fox the batsmen with his core skill.

Interestingly, his speed graphs become flatter when he doesn’t sense any danger from the opposition. But it’s when he gets hit that Chahal truly switches on. Sample this fascinating stat: On eight occasions, Chahal dismissed batsmen who had hit him for sixes on his previous deliveries.

Underestimate him at your own peril for beware, he is a brave spinner who has the confidence on his skills that he can have the last laugh. And he usually does.

Source:: Indian Express