Senior India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal celebrated his 32nd birthday on Saturday. The wily leggie marked off his birthday with a brilliant performance in the first ODI against West Indies, returning with figures of 2/58, taking the key wickets of half-centurion Brandon King and the dangerous Rovman Powell.
Chahal is, quite comfortably, India’s premier spinner in white-ball cricket at the moment and is all but certain to be on the trip to Australia for the T20 World Cup three months later; he has made a stunning comeback in the national colours after being shockingly excluded from the T20 World Cup squad last year in the UAE.
The Haryana-born leggie is – if you may not remember – India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is – with 79 wickets to his name, 9 more than the next best Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Wishes came in for Chahal from all corners on social media. Cricketers and his fans have been sending in their love and support for the 32-year-old.
One special tribute came from legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. The ‘God of Cricket’ cited Chahal’s shrewd Chess skills, lauding that the leg-spinner is adept in checkmating any batsman in the world.
“Many happy returns of the day to a spinner who can checkmate a batter in cricket.
Best wishes and have a good one @yuzi_chahal,” Sachin Tendulkar tweeted.
Here is Sachin Tendulkar’s unique birthday message for Yuzvendra Chahal:
Many happy returns of the day to a spinner who can checkmate a batter in cricket.
Best wishes and have a good one @yuzi_chahal. pic.twitter.com/wwTDyqoFrJ— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 23, 2022
Early in his career, Chahal got the opportunity to not only share the dressing room with Tendulkar but also he played alongside the Mumbai Indians opener on his IPL debut in 2013.
Meanwhile, Chahal’s wife, renowned dancer Dhanashree Verma, took to Instagram to post a heartfelt message for her husband who turned one year older today.
She wrote on Instagram: “Life is just a journey but yet so beautiful in many ways. You’re a good man and may god always be kind. Happy birthday @yuzi_chahal23. Ps. I’m your biggest fan,” adding a couple of adorable images of the couple.
Here, check out Dhanashree’s beautiful post:
Meanwhile, coming back to the first ODI, Chahal was given the unenviable task to bowl three overs between overs 40 to 50 during West Indies’ chase. And though he was taken for 28 runs in those three overs in the final 10, he plucked the important scapl of Brandon King, who could have done further damage after having reached his half-century.
The leg-spinner credited his stint at the Rajasthan Royals earlier in the IPL 2022 where he regularly bowled in the death overs and excelled more often than not. He revealed he’d been told by the management that they will use a few of his overs in the last 10 overs of the game so he was ready for the challenge when it came.
“This change has come from the IPL, because there I was bowling the 16th, 17th and 18th over, so I got the confidence from there. My role was clear, I was told to bowl two-three overs after the 40th over. So I practice accordingly and also plan with our bowling coach,” Chahal explained
Next, the two teams will clash on Sunday for the second ODI at the same ground.
