Before making his international debut in 2016, birthday boy and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal had already attracted cricket fans’ attention with his performance in IPL while playing for the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore. Chahal shot to fame in his maiden IPL season for RCB in 2014. His consistency with the ball made him a regular feature for RCB in the following edition and he delivered some match-winning spells.
Chahal got his maiden call up for the Indian team in 2016 when he was selected for the 15-member squad for the Zimbabwe tour. The good run with the ball continued at the big stage too and he slowly cemented his place as the primary
Indian spin bowler in white-ball cricket.
While the past few months have not been great for him as a bowler, there is no denying the fact that he is an extremely talented bowler. As Chahal celebrates his 31st birthday today, we look back on his career and list some of his most memorable international performances.
6/42 against Australia, 2019 (ODI)
Batting first in the 3rd match of the ODI series against India in 2019, Australia started off the game on a rough note and lost 2 wickets at the score of 27. Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh got together to stitch a 73-run partnership to give some stability to the batting line-up. But just when they were looking to gain momentum in the innings, Chahal picked 3 quick wickets to leave the hosts struggling at 123/5 in the 30th over. The leggy returned in the death over to pick another 3 wickets and helped bundled up the Australian innings at 230 in 48.4 overs. Chahal finished off the innings with a career-best spell of 6 for 42 runs in his 10 overs.
5/22 against South Africa, 2018 (ODI)
The first 5 wicket haul for Chahal came against South Africa when he ran through Proteas batting line-up and helped India bundled them up at 118 runs at the Centurion Ground. Chahal picked 5 for 22 runs in his 8.1 overs and delivered a maiden over. In reply, India chased down the score comfortably with 30 overs to spare.
4/46 against South Africa, 2018 (ODI)
The young spinner of the Indian team was on a roll during the 2018 series of South Africa. The pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal shared 33 wickets between them in a 6-match series. Another brilliant bowling spell from Chahal came in the 3rd match of the series where he neutralized the good start attained by the South African batting line-up with his impressive spin bowling. Chahal finished the match with 4 wickets while giving just 46 runs.
6/25 against England, 2017 (T20)
Chasing the target of 203 set by India while batting first, England appeared to have a chance in the match before Chahal spun the ball to deliver another career-best figures. When England was looking stable at 119/2 in the 14 over, Chahal picked quick wickets to change the momentum of the match completely in favor of India. The leggy finished off his spell with 6 crucial wickets while giving just 25 runs in his 4 overs.
4/23 against Sri Lanka, 2017 (T20)
In response to the target of 181 runs set by the Indian team, Sri Lanka looked under tremendous pressure right from the start of their batting innings and wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. Lankan batters had to answer to Indian bowlers, especially Chahal, who picked up 4 wickets while giving just 23 runs in his 4 overs. With some contribution from Kuldeep and Hardik Pandya, Sri Lanka was bowled out at the 87 runs
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