Ind vs WI | Chahal is back in business

While the nation mourned the passing of Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar on Sunday, the BCCI put off the celebrations it had planned to mark India’s landmark 1000th ODI.

Adopting the motto of the entertainment business — the show must go on — the Indian cricketers provided the soothing balm the grieving nation needed with a clinical performance. A performance that would have certainly brought a smile to the face of ‘The Nightingale of India’ had she been watching it.

The star

The star of India’s win versus the West Indies was leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who added a personal landmark to the team’s by picking up his 100th ODI wicket as well as the Player-of-the-Match award.

No doubt the West Indies batting is far from effective in conditions where the pitch assists spinners from the start, but Kieron Pollard’s boys also hardly got time to prepare for the series because of the inconvenient itinerary forced by time lost to the pandemic.

Point to prove

Even so, no one can take credit away from Chahal. He bamboozled the Windies big-hitters with his wristy artistry. He had a point to prove, indirectly having been asked to cement his place in the team all over again.

Despite being India’s premier limited-overs spinner since 2017, Chahal was omitted from India’s T20 World Cup squad. The moment India’s campaign ended, the selectors and the rejigged team management turned to Chahal yet again.

But Chahal couldn’t really repeat his exploits in the latter half of the Indian Premier League on his return to the Indian team. While he got just one game in the T20I series versus New Zealand, he struggled to get his act together in the ODIs in South Africa.

Having picked up just two wickets at 73.50 apiece in the three ODIs in South Africa, Chahal would surely have been feeling the heat. But as he revealed after the match, the big difference between Chahal in South Africa and on Sunday turned out to be the use of the wrong ’un.

“You told me before the match that it’s important to use the googly, especially against big-hitters, something that I hardly did in South Africa, so I just thought about it and backed myself to execute it,” Chahal told captain Rohit Sharma in a video posted on bcci.tv.

It was evident that the manner in which he bamboozled Pollard, whose frailty against the googly has often been exposed in the IPL, with a googly off the first ball underlined that Chahal had got his mojo back.

India will be hoping that Chahal will continue to sizzle not just for the series against the West Indies but at least for the next 18 months, with two World Cups fast approaching.