When the Indian side for the 2021 T20 World Cup was announced last year, Yuzvendra Chahal’s omission was a huge talking point. While Chahal had been a regular member of the limited-overs team for a number of years, him being dropped for a big event was hard to understand for many. India’s poor performance at the tournament only put more scrutiny on the decision and led to an immediate comeback for him in the home series against New Zealand.
However, it is hard to deny the fact that over the last couple of years Chahal has not been as dangerous with the ball as he was when he burst onto the scene. While there was a time when the leg-spinner was a guaranteed wicket-taker in every match but that has not been the case for a long while. This was evident in India’s recent ODI series defeat to South Africa where he took just two wickets in three games.
Veteran Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik has called Chahal ‘lucky’ for being able to keep hold of his place in the team because of the lack of competition in the leg-spin department. Karthik backed Ravi Bishnoi to replace him in the team.
Talking to Cricbuzz, Karthik said, “At this point of time, outside of Chahal, if you got to pick a wrist-spinner, then there is Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi. And looking at the way things have panned out, I do feel Bishnoi is ahead at the moment right now. But we need to see how badly is Chahal bowling. His stats say that he hasn’t had the best of years. But in many ways he has been lucky because there is nobody pushing him for a place in the squad.”
Karthik blamed the lack of domestic cricket over the last two seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in the lack of wrist-spin options for India.
“So you have to understand that these things happen due to lack of domestic cricket. We are only looking at IPL. There is nothing else to look at in terms of new bowlers, fast bowlers are there in plenty, but when it comes to wrist spinners, there are hardly any, said Karthik.
He added, “And that will remain an issue due to lack of domestic cricket, because you need people with a lot of wickets, especially wrist spinners, and they haven’t played the longer format. They play only 4-5 games of Vijay Hazare and that’s all you get as a sample to choose from.
“That is why in the last two years you haven’t seen anybody come out from the ranks. And the main reason is of course Covid which has created a havoc for many domestic cricketers. While a lot of the international cricketers want a break, the domestic cricketers want a game right now,”
Ravi Bishnoi has earned his maiden call-up to the Indian side in both the ODI and T20I format for the upcoming series against West Indies. The first ODI is scheduled to take place on 6th February.
