Aggressive Virat gives me freedom to attack: Chahal
CHENNAI: Yuzvendra Chahal is revelling under Virat Kohli’s leadership, be it at RCB or the India team. An aggressive spinner in his own right, Chahal, however, attributed Kohli’s leadership as the reason why he looks more threatening.
“Wrist-spinners are mostly attacking and when your captain is so attacking you get freedom to attack more,” Chahal said after India’s win. He took 3/30 in five overs, accounting for the wickets of Glen Maxwell, Matthew Wade and Pat Cummins.
Together with Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, the wristspinner duo accounted for half the Australia side. Chahal attributed this success to planning with Yadav on how to bowl according to the situation and the pitch. “We go by the situation and since both of us are attacking bowlers, we go for wickets,” the 27-year-old said.
“If I bowl first, I tell him where the ball is spinning from and how we can get him out. Because we both look for wickets, there is no point in playing safe. You don’t win matches that way,” he said.
IPL EXPERIENCE
One of the most successful bowlers for RCB in the recent past, Chahal credited his IPL experience as one of the reasons behind his success on Sunday.
“I have bowled a lot to him (Maxwell) in the IPL. We had to spin him out. We couldn’t play defensive. It was important to change our lines. If he plays a good shot, that’s fine. If he scores outside off, then he could get out,” Chahal said.
“Kuldeep’s deliveries come in. So, Mahi bhai and Virat bhai asked me to push it outside and keep checking his feet, bowl outside off and mix it up,” said Chahal.
Chahal also hailed the way Dhoni and Hardik Pandya resurrected India’s innings. “The way the pitch behaved, Mahi bhai and Pandya batted outstandingly. If we reached 230-240 and there was turn, we had Kuldeep and Kedar bhai. Obviously at 87 for 5, Australia were 70% in the game.
“But the way they played, the momentum came through Zampa’s over. And on this wicket 280 was a winning total. In the end, we bowled quite well. Our plus point was that the wicket turned and our start was good. We put pressure from the start,” he said.