Know your Cricketer: Yuzvendra Chahal; an Attacking Legspinner

Yuzvendra Chahal is an Indian cricketer who is known for his attacking leg-spin and right-handed batting. He made headlines when he emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 34 wickets in the National Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy in 2009. Interestingly, he was also a former chess player who represented India at the international level.

Yuzvendra Chahal was born on July 23, 1990, in Jind, Haryana. He started his first-class cricket career in 2009, playing for Haryana. In 2011, Mumbai Indians signed him up for the Indian Premier League (IPL), although he did not play that season. However, he was still included in Mumbai's squad for the Champions League T20 in the same year. For the IPL Season 2014, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for his base price of 10 lakh and was awarded Man of the Match against Delhi Daredevils. He was bought by the Rajasthan Royals in February 2020 and had an outstanding season taking a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Chahal marked his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in June 2016 and gave a remarkable performance by taking 3 wickets for 26 runs in the second match. He also delivered a speedy seam-up delivery at a pace of 109 km/h which earned him the international man of the match award. Later in the same year, he made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe as well.

In February 2017, Chahal made history by becoming the first Indian bowler to achieve a five-wicket haul in T20Is against England. He also holds the record for taking the highest number of wickets (23) in T20Is by any bowler.

Yuzvendra Chahal, an Indian cricketer, has made remarkable achievements in his cricket career. He has taken five-wicket hauls in ODI against Australia in 2018 and also became the third Indian bowler to take 50 wickets in T20Is in 2019. Recently, in February 2022, he reached the milestone of 100 ODI wickets in the opening match against the West Indies.