Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Chahal, or Kul-Cha as their fans call them, have been dominating the cricket world ever since they made their debut in 2018. The famous spin twins have become key players for the Indian cricket team and looking at the current situation it looks completely against them playing together.
Time and again, to balance the lower-order situation in the playing XI, the selectors had to break them apart and play only one of them. This is also one of the reasons why the selectors are looking for more other wicket-taking options, preferably a wrist-spinner who could trap the batsmen and make scoring runs one heck of a task.
Here, in this article, we bring you a list of 5 such leg-spinners who can replace the ‘Kulcha’ pair in the line-up. Have a look:
5. Praveen Dubey:
Praveen Dubey, who made his debut in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League, has some invaluable experience. Though, he couldn’t leave a mark with his performance in the 3 games he played for Delhi Capitals, however, his domestic T20 record has been impressive. In fact, it was his domestic record in T20 that earned him his IPL contract. The talented spinner has scalped 16 wickets from 17 games at an average of 23.62 and an economy rate of 7.2.
4. Rahul Chahar:
There isn’t any denying the fact that Rahul is currently the number 1 spinner in Mumbai Indian’s set-up. Thanks to the Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma, who showed immense faith in him and used him as a wicket-taking option.
Rahul impressed one and all with his performances and got prized scalp in the middle overs, which eventually changed the course of the game. He is often seen coming from across the stumps and bowling his variations to fox the batsmen. For MI, Rahul has picked up 15 wickets from 15 games at an average of 28.86 and an economy rate of 8.16.
3. Rahul Tewatia:
Rahul Tewatia turned out to be one of the highlights of the 2020 edition of the IPL. He gave match-winning performances for Rajasthan Royals with both bat and ball. Though he made a surprise entry in IPL 2020 for RR, but he turned out to be a star player for the team who helped the team in winning games from seemingly difficult situations.
With the bat, Tewatia amassed 255 runs from 14 games at an average of 42.50, while on the other hand, he picked 10 wickets at an average of 32.60 and an economy rate of 7.08. His tight lines, while bowling, makes it tough for batsmen to free their arms, thus trapping them into getting dismissed. He could wreak havoc in the opposition camp if taken in the playing XI.
2. Ravi Bishnoi:
Ravi Bishnoi has impressed the entire cricket fraternity with his performances in the U-19 World Cup, where he turned out to be the highest wicket-taker. Besides this, he got to learn some spin traits from the legendary master, Anil Kumble, who was the head coach of KXIP.
Ravi, who featured in all the 14 games for KXIP in IPL 2020, picked 12 wickets at an average of 31.33 and an economy rate of 7.37. There isn’t any doubt on the fact that he would do wonders playing for India, replacing the ‘Kulcha’ pair.
1. Shreyas Gopal:
Be it in the domestic circuit or in the IPL, this talented spinner from Karnataka has been giving a difficult time to the batsmen. In 45 IPL games he has played in IPL so far, Gopal has dismissed 48 batsmen at an average of 24.25 and an economy rate of 7.85.
If the Indian selectors think of experimenting with someone or doing away with either of Chahal or Kuldeep, Gopal seems to be the perfect choice to replace them.
