Yuzvendra Chahal Should Not Picked For World Cup 2023 – Team India’s selections have been quite puzzling under the tenure of captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid in white-ball cricket. Heading into the World Cup 2023, fans are still unsure about the combinations India will play in the tournament in the bowling department and the personnel who will be used in the batting line-up.
One of the players who is on the fringe and has not cemented his place in the side is senior leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
Yuzvendra Chahal got plenty of sympathy and support from fans and experts after he didn’t get to play a single match in the last two T20 World Cups. There were logical reasons given by two different management for Chahal’s omission from the side.
However, now those reasons have seemed acceptable owing to Yuzvendra Chahal’s own dipping performances. He’s still part of India’s plans for the World Cup 2023, but, with Kuldeep Yadav cementing his spot in the XI on the sheer weight of good performances, it won’t be a big surprise if Chahal is excluded from India’s team in the World Cup, despite it being played in India.
Here are 2 main reasons why Yuzvendra Chahal should not be selected for World Cup 2023:
Lacks ideas and innovation: Chahal remains stubborn about not bowling flatter and faster
One of the major criticism that Yuzvendra Chahal has met with in the past three years is his lack of ability to innovate; his bowling being bereft of clever ideas; his remaining tactically stubborn of his lengths and pace.
In 2021 T20 WC in the UAE, Chahal was dropped for being slow in the air and Rahul Chahar was picked for being quicker – a reason justified very well now as Chahal seems to have not learned his lessons. He keeps tossing up the ball in the hope of getting wickets and on even half-decent surfaces for batting, he gets clobbered for fours and sixes.
Even in the recent T20I series against the West Indies batsmen, who are generally known to struggle against leg-spinners, Chahal leaked runs as he continued to give the ball some flight, inviting big strokes. While some call it an “aggressive” and “big, brave hearted” strategy, it has more often backfired on Chahal and India.
Chahal needs to adapt to the modern white-ball game – go flatter at times and be quicker through the air to not give time for the batters to hit their big slogs.
India need batting depth: Axar Patel a better choice than Chahal
A player is like Chahal is picked in the XI only on his primary skillset of bowling. But with pitches being flatter in modern white-ball cricket, and every run being valuable, teams like England, New Zealand, and Australia have pushed their bowlers to become better in the secondary skillset of batting and also improve their fielding. Chahal remains a poor fielder and can barely hit the ball till the 30-yard circle.
Chahal simply doesn’t bring anything other than his bowling to the table. He isn’t a genuine match-winner with the ball; he’s not a regular wicket-taker like Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, or Siraj, for whom India won’t mind if they don’t offer much with the bat, though Kuldeep and Bumrah can hold their own with the bat.
On the other hand, someone like Axar Patel, who is close to becoming a proper all-rounder in the past year or so, and who also spins the ball the same direction as Chahal – that is away from the right-handers – should be given a chance ahead of Chahal as Patel would also add batting depth.
