CHENNAI: As India left South Africa, losing all three ODIs, one of the concerns for the team management was the dearth of wickets in the middle overs. Their premier spinners — R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal — had a combined tally of three scalps.
The leg-spinner, who was left out of the T20 World Cup, especially had a disappointing series after a good comeback in home T20Is against New Zealand.
With Ashwin missing the West Indies series and Kuldeep Yadav returning, there was a lot of pressure on Chahal to live up to the reputation he had built between 2017-19.
Rohit Sharma, on his first assignment as full-time skipper, had backed both the wrist spinners to come good. And, on Sunday, all Chahal needed was three deliveries to prove Rohit right.
Introduced in the 20th over, Chahal pitched one on good length, just around the off-stump with a bit of flight and spun it back to trap Nicholas Pooran on the pads. Umpire declined the appeal, Rohit reviewed and the decision was reversed as the leg-spinner got his 100th wicket.
As Kieron Pollard was ready to face his first ball, Chahal bowled a perfect googly that pitched outside off, went between the pad and bat, crashing into the off-stump. Going by the celebrations that followed, it seemed like Virat Kohli had suggested the leggie to bowl the wrong’un on Pollard’s first delivery.
Now, after the third T20I against New Zealand in November, Chahal had said that the work put on his googlies and my top-spinners during the time away served him well in the series. He had hardly bowled any in the series in South Africa. On Sunday, against West Indies, he was using it frequently, and more importantly, executed it to perfection.
Gaining confidence from the two wickets in his first over, Chahal went on to take two more, finishing with 4/49, thus playing a vital role in dismissing West Indies for 176.
Acknowledging the change in his bowling tactics, the 31-year-old said that he went back and saw the footages from South Africa to understand what went wrong. After discussing with captain Rohit and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, he worked on his pace variations and with the pitch assisting, Chahal ensured that he made the most of it.
But, it was not just about the tactics and execution, there were other factors too. Unlike South Africa where India struggled to take wickets early on, Mohammad Siraj and Washington Sundar had done their part before Chahal came on. And it helped him settle without the pressure of taking wickets from ball one.
With Washington doing well and Rohit keen to bring back Kuldeep into the mix, Chahal might not have secured his place in the eleven. But, for now, he will be relieved about repaying the captain's confidence with a player of the match performance.