Yuzvendra Chahal during a chat with Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, former captain Virat Kohli never tried to change him as a bowler. Chahal further praised Kohli and said that the latter always gave him confidence even when he leaked a few runs.
Mega auction for the IPL 2022 is scheduled to be held on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru. All the franchises have submitted their final retentions ahead of IPL 2022, and the teams will be looking forward to purchasing talented players through the mega auction for the upcoming seasons in IPL.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj ahead of the 15th edition of the cash-rich league. However, the franchise released their premium spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, and the 31-year-old will feature in the mega auction. Chahal has s far scalped 139 wickets from 114 IPL matches.
Meanwhile, Chahal revealed that former RCB captain Virat Kohli never tried to change him as a bowler. The leg-spinner further added that he always received great support from Kohli, while the latter captained the team.
“I realised that he [Kohli] had a lot of positive energy. He never tried to change me, he never asked me to bowl this way or that way. We always had two plans, and the first plan was always mine. He would tell me, ‘You plan the way you want to bowl.’ It helped me because I have to bowl, so it helped to think about it, [and] get the field I wanted,” Chahal said on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel.
“Sometimes I told him to set whatever field he wanted, so he said, ‘Okay, I will make a couple of changes, you bowl the way you want’. That gives you confidence when a big player – your captain – supports you.
“In some matches when I gave away runs, he would come running from the boundary to tell me, ‘No problem, you carry on, you will bounce back’. So that boosts you,” he added.
Chahal has been an integral part of the RCB squad since 2014. The leg-spinner has a great skill for picking wickets at crucial junctures in the match for the franchise.
Chahal stated that he is ready to go to any franchise this year, and will continue giving his best as a cricketer.
“The journey for eight years has been memorable. There is no right to match [which the franchise used to retain him in 2018] this time, so I will go to whoever pays the most for me. This is the first time where I might end up going to another team because there is no right to match,” he explained.
“I am ready to go to any team. As a professional player, you should be ready to play for any team.
“Obviously, I want to go to RCB again. But I won’t feel bad if I go somewhere else. All of them have to build new teams. Whoever takes me, I have no problem. I will continue to give my 100 percent.”
Yuzvendra Chahal’s base price for the auction is set at Rs 2 crore this year.
