Rahul Chahar – Making a name for himself in champion MI side
In the ongoing IPL 2021, Rahul Chahar has been a bright spot for Mumbai Indians in an otherwise average campaign. The defending champions have played five matches thus far and have won only two. However, leg-spinner Chahar has nine scalps to his name. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, he claimed 4/27 – his career-best IPL figures. Here’s more on the 21-year old spinner.
Chahar has got success at an early age. Belonging to a family, which has another international cricketer in the form of his brother, Deepak Chahar, Rahul decided to sacrifice his studies and devote his full attention to cricket at an early age.
The beginning
His consistent performances at the age-level cricket earned him a national call-up and a chance to represent India under-19. But his biggest breakthrough arrived when he was picked for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League’s 2017 edition. The leggie, under the guidance of MS Dhoni and Steve Smith, got a great chance to learn the game and gain exposure. Though he played only 3 games in the season, participating alongside the biggest names in the field enriched his game.
Joining Mumbai Indians
More fortune followed his way when the talent scouts at Mumbai Indians found him and showed confidence in the skilful leg spinner. After 2017, he was not a part of the 2018 IPL in any game, but 2019 saw his stocks improve steadily and his crucial performance for the Mumbai Indians led them to give him 13 of the 16 matches they played in 2019. With no scarcity in talent, he used his variations to good effect and scalped 13 wickets in the season at an average of 23.69.
MATCH 5 KKR VS MI – MATCH REPORT#MumbaiIndians 152 all out (Suryakumar Yadav 56, Rohit Sharma 43, Andre Russell 5/15) beat #KolkataKnightRiders 142/7 (Nitish Rana 57, Shubman Gill 33, Rahul Chahar 4/27) by 10 runs#KKRvsMI #KKR #MI pic.twitter.com/zOOKk527XH
— Indian Cricket Team (@IndianCricNews) April 14, 2021
His ability to trouble the batsmen with his clever googlies earned him the confidence of Captain Rohit Sharma, who used him in the powerplay overs and he proved his worth by bowling in arguably the most difficult phase of the shorter format. The year 2020 proved even better for him as he played 15 matches and bagged as many wickets at an average of 28.86.
Under Mahela Jayawardene and Zaheer Khan’s guidance at the Mumbai Indians, he managed to flourish and has now become a regular part of the star-studded Mumbai Indians set up. Despite his young age and over-brimming competition in a competitive league like IPL and a competitive team like Mumbai Indians, Rahul Chahar has proved that if talent could meet hard work, the results follow certainly.
His IPL exploits have even earned him a national call up and he has been a part of three T20Is for the country so far. After making his debut against West Indies in 2019, he was recalled in the recent series against England. The 21-year-old continues to be a bright prospect in both the IPL and India’s national team.
