‘Back your skills and strength as bowler,’ How Yuzvendra Chahal benefitted from senior spinner’s advice

Yuzvendra Chahal, who has become an integral part of India’s limited-overs set-up, revealed how an advice given by senior pro Harbhajan Singh stuck with him and helped him develop confidence.

Before Yuzvendra Chahal created ripples for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, he spent three seasons with the Mumbai Indians. Although he ended up playing just one game for the franchise in 2013, he did not leave the team without having gained anything. The legspinner, who has become an integral part of India’s limited-overs set-up, revealed how an advice given by senior pro Harbhajan Singh stuck with him and helped him develop confidence.

Yuzvendra Chahal celebrates a wicket for India. (Getty Images)

“Harbhajan Singh once told me - back your skills as a bowler. My strengths are varying my pace and beating the batsman in flight. I have seen a lot of spinners change their actions while bowling at the Chinnaswamy. I can sense their fear, I then tell this to the batsmen in my team so that they can attack him,” Chahal told ESPNCricinfo.

Chahal weighed in on the saliva ban by the ICC, saying the move tends to affect the spinners equally as it does the pacers. Chahal reckons lack of saliva tends to take away from a spinner the luxury of generating drift on the ball, without which he is likely to be less effective. And for the same reason, Chahal is eager to work on his bowling once the Indian cricket team gets the green light to train.

“When you use a natural element like saliva, it helps pacers with swing and spinners with the drift. If as a spinner, I cannot get drift in the middle overs, the batsmen will have it easy. This is something that will affect every bowler in the world. I will have to figure out a solution once I start bowling in the nets,” Chahal said.

“Spinners use saliva too to maintain the shine of the ball because we are aware that pacers will bowl after us or are bowling from the other end. And I would like to maintain the condition of the ball in a way that it helps pacers whenever they come. Pacers also think the same way. When they see spinners coming, they refrain from shining the ball too much. This is how we plan things.”

Chahal stressed on the importance of the spinner’s primary role, saying it is crucial to keep picking wickets, even if that comes on the expense of a few expensive overs, at least that’s the instruction he received from his captains . In 94 ODIs and T20Is combined, Chahal has grabbed 146 wickets with two five-wicket-hauls in ODIs and one in T20s.

“Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, whoever the captain is, they want us to pick up wickets. Even if I concede 70 runs in my 10 overs but pick up three wickets in the middle overs, it will benefit the team,” said Chahal.

“The pace of the game also quickens when spinners are operating from both ends. If there is turn on offer, it becomes difficult to play spinners in the middle overs. We have always believed in going for wickets in the middle overs.”