Leading Indian leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal won the Purple cap in IPL 2022.
The high and the low Yuzvendra Chahal finished IPL 2022 as the highest wicket taker with 27 wickets from 17 matches at an average of 19.51 and an economy rate of 7.75.
He maintained a strike rate of 15.1 and also picked up one 4 wicket haul and one 5 wicket haul, with the best of 5/14 and even took a hat-trick against Kolkata knight Riders to turn the match on its head.
Yuzvendra Chahal must have been quite dejected after not being picked in the Indian squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup despite being the best spinner in the country.
Accepted that he did not have a great first half IPL 2021 but not picking a player who had been a regular in the team for so many years right before a showpiece event does not send a good signal and is never healthy for a player's mental wellbeing as well.
Bouncing back However, Chahal left the disappointment behind and bounced back in full flight. He did a fine job for Team India before the beginning of IPL 2022 and then carried his form in the cash rich league as well.
Yuzi played a major role in Rajasthan Royals making it to the final. It was in fact Jos Buttler and Yuzvendra Chahal who were the two pillars for Rajasthan. If you take out the contributions of these two players, one doubts that Rajasthan would have been able to make it to the playoff itself, let alone finishing as the runners up in the prestigious competition.
What went wrong The thing which Yuzvendra Chahal was not doing very well in international cricket was that he went away from his strength. His strength is to bowl slowly and attack the wickets. During the time when he was not doing well, he was bowling quite wide of the wickets and trying to bowl it quite quickly.
Another thing which he did not focus on was mixing it up with his googly and flipper. It is quite easy for the batters to line you up in T20 cricket if you are bowling the same delivery again and again, no matter how perfect it is.
Chahal also has a very strong brain on his shoulders and does not get affected even after getting hit for a couple of sixes. This is what you need from a spinner, a wrist spinner particular. He still has a lot to contribute to Indian cricket in the times to come.
