Virat Kohli Finally Breaks His Silence On Yuzvi Chahal’s Omission From India’s WC Squad: Everyone was left puzzled when India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup was announced last month. No other decision of the selection committee gathered this many eyeballs as India’s decision to exclude Yuzvendra Chahal out of the mega tournament.
Despite India initially picking five players in the Indian line-up, Yuzvendra Chahal’s name didn’t feature in the squad. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians‘ Rahul Chahar was named to the Indian squad instead of Chahal.
For the unversed, Yuzvendra Chahal had suffered a dip in his form earlier this year while at the same time Rahul Chahar impressed everyone with his performances against England at home and then during the first half of the IPL 2021.
Rahul had picked 15 wickets in Mumbai Indians’ trophy-winning campaign in IPL 2020 in the UAE. Yuzvendra was struggling both with the economy and wickets.
Ahead of the upcoming high-voltage tournament — T20 World Cup 2021, the Indian skipper Virat Kohli finally broke his silence on the omission of Yuzvendra Chahal from the Indian squad for the WC.
On Saturday, Team India skipper Virat Kohli, who’ll be leading the Indian side in his final assignment as the captain in the T20 format of the game, explained the reasons for picking Rahul Chahar ahead of Chahal, who is also his teammate at RCB.
“It was a difficult and challenging call (dropping Chahal)” Virat said.
He added:
“We decided to back Rahul Chahar for a reason, he is a guy who bowls with pace. Bowled well in Sri Lanka and in England also he was good. The wickets in UAE will be slow and the guys who bowl with some pace, attack with stumps and that is the factor that tipped the balance in favour of Rahul,”
Furthermore, in a captain’s call organized by the International Cricket Council, Virat heaped praises on Rahul Chahar and expressed how Chahar’s pace will be more useful on the slow tracks in UAE. He said:
“We believe going on in this tournament, the wickets are going to get slower and slower, so guys who bowl with pace will be able to trouble the batters as compared to those who give it air. Rahul definitely has those strengths naturally as a leg-spinner. He is someone who always attacks the wickets, that is the factor that tilted the thing in favour of him. Picking a World Cup is always tricky and you cannot always have everyone in that squad,”
Meanwhile, things turned around for both the bowlers when IPL 2021 resumed at the UAE leg. Yuzvi Chahal made a stunning comeback to his best, picking at least one wicket in every RCBmatch, while Rahul Chahar struggled miserably and was even dropped from the playing XI of Mumbai Indians
