ICC T20 World Cup 2021: “It Was Challenging To Drop Yuzvendra Chahal”: Virat Kohli

Indian skipper Virat Kohli will be leading his team in the upcoming T20 World Cup in the UAE. He is all set to step down as India’s T20I skipper after the tournament. Thus this is his last chance to win an ICC T20 World Cup title as captain. Meanwhile, he will not have his trusted ally Yuzvendra Chahal bowling for him in the competition.

Chahal was not included in India’s final squad that was announced a few days ago. He did not find a spot even in the reserves. Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy are the specialist leg-spinners with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin the other two spinners in the lineup.

Virat Kohli speaking in his recent pre-match press conference spoke about the reason behind dropping Chahal from the squad.

Yuzvendra Chahal Not Even Picked in India Reserves

“It was a challenging call but we decided to back Rahul Chahar for a reason. He has bowled amazingly well over the last couple of years in the IPL. A guy who bowls with pace, he did really well in Sri Lanka and against England at home as well, he was someone who bowled those difficult overs,” explained Kohli during a Captain’s Call organised by the ICC ahead of the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup.

“We believe going on in this tournament, the wickets are going to get slower and slower, so guys who bowl with pace will be able to trouble the batters as compared to those who give it air. Rahul definitely has those strengths naturally as a leg-spinner. He is someone who always attacks the wickets, that is the factor that tilted the thing in favour of him. Picking a World Cup squad is always tricky and you cannot always have everyone in that squad,” he added.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Rahul Chahar both played key roles for their respective franchises in the last couple of IPL. In the recently concluded IPL season, Chahal picked 18 wickets while Chahar picked 13.

Chahar and Chahal both played in the white-ball series against Sri Lanka in the lead upto the IPL. They were a part of the second-string Indian side which played against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. India won the ODI series but lost in the T20Is.