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IPL 2021: How Rahul Chahar came to Mumbai Indians' rescue
IPL 2021: Chahar is among the T20 breed of bowlers who bowl flat, rely on change in length and angles—quite similar to Rashid Khan. Against KKR, the 21-year-old’s performance was coming off age.
Kolkata Knight Riders were sitting pretty at 72 for no loss—just requiring 81 off 68 balls—then came Mumbai Indians’ great squeeze led by their leggie Rahul Chahar.
IPL 2021, MI vs SRH in Chennai
With the Chennai pitch favouring the spinners, skipper Rohit Sharma wanted his lead spinner to not just curtail the runs but take wickets as well to which Chahar responded and delivered. Chahar came on to bowl in the ninth over and by the time he had finished his spell in the 15th over, he had record his career best figures of 4-0-27-4. (IPL 2021 Full Coverage)
Chahar is among the T20 breed of bowlers who bowl flat, rely on change in length and angles—quite similar to Rashid Khan. Against KKR, the 21-year-old’s performance was coming off age. He showed that he can give the ball a nice rip and flight it as well—not afraid of being hit.
All his dismissals came off different variations. Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan fell prey to tossed up deliveries, Rahul Tripathi was done in by the spin while Nitish Rana was stumped off a flipper which he failed to reach.
One thing that those in the MI set-up vouch for is that he never backs down from a contest. The perfect example of it was what unfolded before Gill’s wicket. Chahar had gone for plenty in the first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and didn’t have the best of starts against KKR with Gill taking 10 off his first four deliveries. MI needed wicket at that stage, Chahar tossed another one up rather than going to the safety of bowling flat and stump-to-stump. He was rewarded with Gill holing out at long-off.
"I've bowled to the Indian team, the big players in the nets, and when you do that, the pressure is less in a match scenario. This is my fourth year with Mumbai Indians, and I bowl to some of the world's best hitters, so I don't feel pressure in the match,” Chahar said after the match.
He credited skipper Sharma for believing in his abilities. “"Sometimes, Rohit Sharma has had more confidence in me than I've had on myself. I enjoyed Tripathi's wicket, particularly. I got him exactly the way a leg-spinner would want to get a batsman. All Rohit told me was "you're bowling well. Sometimes even I'm not able to understand what (variations) you're bowling (in the nets). So just focus on turning the ball consistently”. I knew if there was someone who could make a difference here (in Chennai), it was the spinners.”
The fearless attitude, not backing down from a contest besides the skill set have been honed over the years by the MI think-tank. Chahar spoke of it during the last season when Zaheer Khan, MI director of cricket, had asked him to be a bit more fearless and bowl with an attacking mindset.
"In the beginning of the (2020) tournament, I was being a bit safer and wasn't attacking as much, so he told me, “You're a wicket-taking bowler, you should attack more. Don't worry if you're hit for a six”. He gives me confidence from time to time. He says, “don't restrict yourself, bowl freely the way you want” and takes the fear factor out of me,” Chahar had said.
This is Chahar’s third full season with MI and every year he has been improving. In the 2019—his first full season—IPL he picked up 13 wickets at an economy rate of 6.55. He followed it with 15 scalps at economy rate of 8.16 in 2020 edition in UAE.
MI bowling coach Shane Bond calls him a keen learner. “He is still young but he has played fair bit of cricket (for us), some high pressure cricket and is a key member of our team. I still think he has a long way to go. We do a lot work behind the scenes, lot of analysis about how he will go about his game. He is (someone) who is a really good listener and ready to implement in the game,” said Bond on Friday.
With Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav form slipping over the last two years, India is looking for spinners for the T20 World Cup to be held later in the year at home. With another good stint in the IPL, Chahar can put his hat in the ring as well.
