IPL 2022: Yuzvendra Chahal’s redemption song takes full flight at Rajasthan Royals – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Let us start with a simple statement. Jos Buttler is the best T20 opener in world cricket at present. There isn’t much to argue about it – 375 runs in six innings, including two centuries, another two fifties, a strike-rate of 156.90 and Buttler is setting the 2022 Indian Premier League alight.

If at all, there is room for debate herein, then maybe the word ‘batsman’ can replace ‘opener’ in the aforementioned sentence. There are those who already believe so, and there is ample evidence of the same. After all, this is the best T20 competition in the world and look who is dominating it. But there is also a school of thought that Buttler needs to set fire to T20 cricket on the international stage.

Back at the 2021 T20 World Cup in UAE, he tried doing just that, single-handedly marshalling English batting at times. Ultimately though, his side fell short of the requisite mark and David Warner stole the show in the latter stages. That’s the step-up Buttler needs and make no mistake it is coming. The way he is hitting the ball currently, there is no bowler he cannot take on, and no boundary he cannot clear.

There is a video on Rajasthan Royals’ social media wherein Buttlewr hits the right notes in the nets. It is the kind of stuff we have seen Virat Kohli producing for years during net sessions for both RCB and the Indian cricket team. It is no wonder Buttler is converting this purple touch into runs on the field, just where the Royals need it most.

Royals surely needed him on Monday night. They had suffered a minor blip against Gujarat Titans, and needed to bounce back quickly. The Brabourne is proving to be a batsman-friendly ground in the current tournament, and for this game, there was a short boundary to take advantage of. Buttler continued from where he left against Gujarat, where he smoked a 24-ball 54, and showed what he brings to the table for Rajasthan at top of the order.

Even so, despite his 103 off 61 balls helping raise a tall order of 217/5, Kolkata Knight Riders came out all guns blazing and were very much dominating proceedings with a very fine stand between Shreyas Iyer and Aaron Finch. Finch departed after a 28-ball 58 but Iyer kept going from the other end and raced to 85 off just 50 balls. Heading into the 17th over, KKR seemed favourites with 40 needed off the last four, and six wickets in the bag.

Then came the turning point, quite literally

First ball of the 17th over, and Venkatesh Iyer jumped out, beaten easily by a tossed-up googly. The next two balls delivered just one run. Overall, four balls in succession had brought two runs, a dot and a wicket. The pressure was mounting and Shreyas Iyer was in the thick of it.

Chahal then sent down a slower wide delivery. Shreyas was happy see it travel to the keeper’s gloves and got an extra run. Leggie under pressure? Bowling wides in a crucial over? Well, this was the set-up! The 31-year-old followed the wide with a fuller delivery and Shreyas, looking to work that across the line, missed and was trapped in front. Big moment. Next two balls – a tossed up delivery to Shivam Mavi who holed out and a quick leg break to Pat Cummins who was snapped up behind. Four wickets in an over – the game had turned on its head, and Kolkata were suddenly down in the dumps in the space of six deliveries.

The lasting image of Chahal’s hat trick was him sliding to strike a pose for his family and friends. Let’s call it an iconic pose, for it was precisely that, asserting to those watching that this pint-sized leg spinning dynamo was acquired for a mere INR 6.5 crore. That Royal Challengers Bangalore have arguably made the biggest error in IPL’s retention history.

Bangalore does what Bangalore does, and most of the times, it is beyond understanding for cricket experts and fans alike. After Virat Kohli, Chahal was the only cricketer to feature in 100-plus games for that franchise. His impact was considerable – on average he scalped nearly 18 wickets a season for RCB, and that’s a telling statistic, given the Chinnaswamy’s dimensions. Then, there is the fan-connect, an important aspect for any franchise. In rebuilding for the future, how did RCB not even consider retaining him?

Maybe, they read too much into his IPL 2021 statistics? In the first seven games played in India, Chahal averaged 47.5 and picked up only four wickets with an economy of 8.3 per over. He recovered in UAE, picking 14 wickets in eight games as his bowling average dipped to 20.77. But the damage was done. Not only did Chahal miss out on India’s squad for the ensuing World Cup, it seems to have impacted RCB’s decision making too. Did Mike Hesson and company suddenly think his leg-spin was not a potent enough weapon in India, and thus opted for a better balance in Wanindu Hasranga?

To be fair, Hasranga has given fair returns, picking 11 wickets in six games at 17.72 (average). But an Indian capped player brings more to the table, certainly when his name is Chahal and the franchise in question is Bangalore. It is akin to Rajasthan not retaining Buttler, and that mistake was certainly not made. Guess Bangalore’s loss is Rajasthan’s gain, and this move could potentially haunt RCB for a long time.

But this is not about RCB, or Rajasthan even. This is about Chahal, and how he has re-invented himself, making use of a fresh start. Perhaps, he was stagnating at the previous franchise, under Kohli’s inert captaincy, and it was impacting his international performances as well. Bowl in the powerplays, and then a couple in the middle overs, this ploy was being overused and the competition had caught up.

This is where Chahal’s redemption song at Rajasthan takes full flight. A key phenomenon of his performances in pink-blue has been bowling at the death. The Rajasthan think-tank has taken a mindful decision to hold atleast one Chahal over back for the last four.

Sample this. In six games so far, Chahal has bowled the 16th over on four occasions, the 17th twice, and the 18th once. He has picked up 11 wickets off 42 balls, that’s a wicket every 3.8 balls bowled at the death. It is better than what Jasprit Bumrah has bowled this IPL season.

In fact, Chahal even missed a hat trick previously against Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan’s second game of the season. Only on one occasion, he has failed to pick wickets late, and that was against RCB, when Dinesh Karthik showed caution and played Chahal for four singles despite 32 needed off 24 balls.

Variation in pace, in line and length, all of that is in plain sight. What has worked best for Chahal at Rajasthan is newfound self-belief and a go-get-them attitude, seen in this death overs’ ploy. There is no way that Chahal is missing the flight to Australia for this year’s T20 World Cup.

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