If you perform, you automatically become a crucial member of the team: Piyush Chawla

KKR spin bowling spearhead Piyush Chawla feels that surfaces should not matter much for spinners, who have quality in their ranks. Chawla says that he was happy with the track which was on offer during yesterday’s game.

“As a spinner I always wanted to play at the Eden Gardens,” he told Cricbuzz. “This year the wickets are not as good as you like as a spinner but last two years we got slow wickets.

“If you had right pace and if you had the confidence the throw the ball up in the air, only then the ball spun last year. It’s not like we played on rank turners.”

Chawla felt that the faith shown by the captain and team management has played a huge role in his success.

“As a player you need the backing of the captain and the team management,” he gushed. “In that case, Gautam has been really nice and has backed everyone a lot. If you have that (backing) and you turn up and perform, you automatically become a crucial member of the squad.”

What Chawla said isn’t without merit. Assistance from the track prompted Gambhir to set one of the most unusual fields for the leg-spinner in a Twenty20 match. Chawla bowled with two slips, one short-leg and a silly point against Pune. The nature of the track helped, of course, but what Gambhir move is also showed was immense trust in Chawla’s ability – something that has helped the leg-spinner raise the performance up a notch.

The Eden Garden track offered a lot more help to the spinners. The help from the track gave them the edge over visiting Rising Pune Supergiants.

Chawla ended with figures of 2 for 21 in his four overs unchanged spell and played a key role in stifling RPS batting order before rains interrupted. One of the highlights of Chawla’s spell was the 11 dot balls.