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Team India suffered an unceremonious exit from the 2022 T20 World Cup after losing the semi-final clash against England by 10 wickets. After the Men in Blue failed to end their ICC trophy drought, several questions were raised about Rohit Sharma's captaincy and the overall team selection by the Indian captain and coach Rahul Dravid. One of the burning questions was: why did Yuzvendra Chahal not play even a single game in the competition? In a candid conversation with Aaj Tak's Managing Editor, Vikrant Gupta, the Indian leg-spinner spilled the beans.
"The team combination always comes first and it is the most important thing. We had (Ravichandran) Ashwin and Axar (Patel) and they were bowling well. I knew that whenever I play, I have to do well. That's why everything was clear with Rohit bhai and the coach. Every player was told to be ready. When you are to be selected for the 15-member squad, these things happen," Chahal said on Agenda Aaj Tak.
Interestingly, the veteran leg-spinner was not selected for India's T20 World Cup squad in 2021 and when he got selected in 2022, he didn't get an opportunity to play. Apart from talking about his lack of game time, Chahal also spoke about various other things.
Chahal's first meeting with Sachin
Talking about his first meeting with former India captain and legendary batter, Sachin Tendulkar, Chahal said, "When I met him for the first time, I just enquired about his well-being. But the conversation started in the nets. When I used to bowl to him, he used to feel that there is something in it and I also kept asking him how to bowl on these wickets. He helped me a lot."
What did he say on Kuldeep?
Speaking about Kuldeep Yadav, who forms the other half of once lethal Kul-Cha combination, Chahal said, "I knew Kuldeep since 2012. He came to Mumbai Indians. From there our bonding was formed and then it translated on to the field as well. We believed in each other. Many times it used to happen that a batter was playing you well, then the target was the other batter. Off the field and on the field we used to talk about each other's bowling. We didn't think that the other person is our opponent, we talked about how we can move forward match by match."
