Yuzvendra Chahal has only been rested to give others an opportunity, believes Sourav Ganguly

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has been missing from action for the past two T20I series against West Indies and now South Africa. This has raised many eyebrows, given that he, along with Kuldeep Yadav, was the go-to man for the Indian captain since 2017 and helped India win many matches on their own. Chahal came into the limelight after picking 6 wickets in a T20I against England in 2017 and since then has not looked back.

He also picked a 6-fer against Australia in an ODI, which are the joint best bowling figures in the format in Australia by an Indian bowler. However, he failed to create the same magic in the World Cup during the second half of the tournament but was still preferred over Kuldeep. Now with the team focusing on all-rounders in the 20-over format, former skipper Sourav Ganguly hopes that Chahal is only being rested and not dropped.

India doesn’t need two left-arm spinners in T20Is: Ganguly

Ganguly felt that the team management only left Chahal out to give him some rest after playing two years non-stop in limited-overs cricket and wants to see what other players have to offer and whether they can come good in Chahal and Kuldeep’s absence. Otherwise, he believed that the Haryana leggie is a certainty in the Indian T20I team as well.

“I hope Yuzvendra Chahal has only been rested to give the opportunity to others or else he is a must for India in the T20 format. India doesn’t need two left-arm spinners,” wrote Ganguly in his column for The Times of India (TOI).

Chahal, who is a regular feature in Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the IPL which is captained by Virat Kohli, has been one of the primary bowlers for Kohli in ODIs and T20Is. Whenever Virat has asked for a wicket, the leg-spinner has seldom let his skipper down. He has 85 wickets in 50 ODIs at an average of 26.42 and 46 wickets in 31 T20Is at an economy of 8.00.

However, he is yet to claw his way into the Indian Test team, which will play three Tests against South Africa starting from October 2 in Visakhapatnam. “The test series will start soon and hopefully India will play on good pitches and not rank turners, as it has been in the last series because India is a very good team on any surface,” reckoned Ganguly.

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