Yuzvendra Chahal, who is known for trapping all the great batters with his spin, is one of the aces of spin bowling in the Indian team. The star spinner will try to leave no stone unturned to help the Men in Blue end their ICC trophy drought and win the trophy in the T20 World Cup 2024 which will be held in the United States and West Indies. This time, Team India's spin pair Kulcha i.e. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will get to shine together. Let's find out how Chahal, laid the foundation for his success in the world of cricket from being a champion chess player.
Born on 23 July 1990 in Jind district of Haryana, Chahal comes from a middle-class family. His father KK Chahal was a lawyer by profession, while his mother Sunita used to take care of the house. Chahal's two elder sisters live in Australia. He used to study in DAVC Public School, Jind but was always less interested in studies. Chahal fell in love with the game of chess at the age of just 7 years.
Journey to become national chess champion
Chahal impressed everyone with his talent in the game of chess since his childhood. Due to his amazing game, people also started calling him Chess Master. He was only 10 years old when he proved his caliber at the national level by winning the National Championship in 2002. After this, he participated on behalf of India in the Junior World Chess Championship held in Greece. Chahal also participated in the Under 16 Chess Tournament.
Chose cricket due to financial constraints
In 2006, Chahal's chess career came into crisis. This year, Chahal faced financial issues as he was not getting sponsors while playing chess. To deal with this problem, Chahal said goodbye to chess and set out to earn a name in the world of cricket. This champion player also showed his ability in cricket and made the batters helpless in front of his spin. The result was that Chahal got a place in Haryana's Under 14 team. After this, Chahal's cricket flight gained wings. In 2009, Chahal made his debut in first-class cricket against Madhya Pradesh. Later, Chahal also started his List A career.
Chahal created history in IPL
Chahal got a chance to play IPL due to his consistently good performance in domestic cricket. In the year 2011, Mumbai Indians added this bowler from Haryana. However, he could only play one match for Mumbai in 2011. The year 2014 proved to be the turning point for Chahal's IPL career when he got a place in the RCB team captained by Virat Kohli. Chahal was the most successful bowler for RCB and took 139 wickets for Bengaluru. However, he has to change teams after being bought by Rajasthan Royals in the year 2022. He created history in IPL 2024 after becoming the first bowler to take 200 wickets in the cash-rich league. He currently has 205 wickets in front of his name in IPL.
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Chahal steals spotlight in T20Is
Chahal's strong performance for RCB earned him a call-up to the national side. On June 18, 2016, Chahal made his T20 International debut against Zimbabwe at Harare. After this, in 2017, Chahal created a sensation by taking 6 wickets in a match against England. This performance also earned Chahal his first Player of the Match award. So far, Chahal has taken 96 wickets in the 80 T20 International matches. During this period, Chahal has spent runs at an economy of 8.19.
Chahal's 2nd T20 World Cup
Yuzvendra Chahal will be a part of India's T20 World Cup squad for the second time. Earlier, Chahal was also part of the team that went to Australia for the T20 World Cup 2022. Although, he did not get to play a single match. This time in the World Cup, Chahal is in the team as one of their main spin bowlers, so he will try his best to make Team India the world champion once again.
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