Yuzvendra Chahal set to break Ravi Ashwin's record

As the format got shorter cricket pundits all over the world predicted how the spinners would get smashed to all parts of the park. The wrist spinners soon set their foot down in the shorter format and the pundits had their eyes set on them. All major international teams now field a wrist spinner if not two in limited-overs cricket and even the best of batters find it difficult to read them off the hand to identify which way the ball would spin.

Yuzvendra Chahal of India, for that matter, is a classical musician in the era of pop singers. In a format where the batsmen stand and hit the ball into the stands irrespective of the reputation of the bowler, the line and length, the time and the situation, he has shown the courage to give the ball air.

The Chahal deception

The 27-year-old has been one consistent performer for India in limited-overs cricket this year. It was his guile that gave the management enough confidence to restrict two of their star performers Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja just to Tests.

He sets his sight on a new record as Team India gear up to face the Lankans in the dead rubber, 3rd T20I in Mumbai. Chahal has taken 8 wickets in the series so far and has cemented his place in the coloured unit. He is also the leading wicket-taker in T20Is in 2017 with 23 wickets in 11 matches.

Heading into the last game of the year Chahal needs just one wicket to go past Ashwin’s tally of 23 wickets in a calendar year which the off-spinner managed in 2016. Along similar lines, the Haryana cricketer needs only two wickets to reach the most impressive bowling figures by an Indian bowler in a T20 series.

Ashwin had picked 9/35 against Sri Lanka in 2016, Chahal has his eyes set on this record as he has already taken 8/75 in this series. He can also go past Saeed Ajmal‘s record of 25 T20I wickets in a calendar year, Ajmal took 25 wickets in 2012. Three wickets for Chahal in this game and he can go past Ajmal’s tally. Chahal is unarguably a conventional yet one of the finest leg spinners going around in world cricket currently.

Top wicket-takers in T20Is in 2017

1. Yuzvendra Chahal: 23 wickets in 11 matches

2. Rashid Khan: 17 wickets in 10 matches

3. Kesrick Williams: 17 wickets in 9 matches

4. Shadab Khan: 14 wickets in 10 matches

5. Imran Tahir: 14 wickets in 9 matches