‘He is in a different league’ – Yuzvendra Chahal lauds Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan for the latter’s leg-spin exploits

Indian cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal heaped praises on Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan for the latter’s exploits across formats over the last few years. At the age of 23, the Afghanistan tweaker already has 400 T20 wickets to his name from 289 matches. In fact, he is fourth in the list of all-time wicket-takers in the format after Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Imran Tahir.

Rashid also became the fastest bowler to pick up 100 T20I wickets and he achieved the feat during the T20 World Cup 2021 in Oman and UAE. The youngster also has 134 wickets, combining ODI and Test cricket. While lauding him, Chahal also drew Rashid’s parallels with the legendary Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

“Rashid Khan is in a different league. I believe he is a cut above the rest like we used to talk about Muralitharan sir or Shane Warne sir. My calling card is mind-game. I don’t try fancy variations. I back whatever variations I have,” Chahal said to TOI.

I felt really bad, says Yuzvendra Chahal

Chahal has been a fulcrum of India’s bowling attack in the last couple of years, especially in ODIs and T20Is. However, he was left out of the national squad for the T20 World Cup. Rahul Chahar, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakravarthy were picked as the spin-bowling options.

The snub had affected Chahal, but instead of letting the situation ruffle him, he put his best foot forward in the second leg of IPL 2021. The veteran thanked his family and wife, Dhanashree Verma, for staying by his side during the tough times.

“I was not dropped in four years and then I got dropped for such a marquee event. I felt really bad. I was down for two-three days. But then I knew the second leg of the IPL was still around the corner,” he stated.

“I went back to my coaches and spoke to them a lot. My wife and family were constantly encouraging me. My fans kept putting out motivational posts. That buoyed me. I decided to back my strengths and overcome my confusion. I couldn’t have sulked for long because that would have impacted my IPL form,” Chahal added.