If Uttar Pradesh is a factory of pace bowlers, especially swingers, Haryana has to be the shop floor for spinners. Three of India’s leading spinners — Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal — represent the State team, which ironically plays most of its home games on a lush green track at Lahli, where spinners hardly come into play.
With Jayant sidelined with an injury and R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja having been rested, Mishra joined Chahal in India’s T20 squad for the series against England. And Chahal justified being preferred over his senior with an impressive outing.
Chahal’s two for 23 off his quota — he got both openers in his opening over — was the only notable achievement from an otherwise lacklustre bowling unit in Kanpur. And the leggie, who earned his India cap during last year’s tour to Zimbabwe, had no hesitation in admitting the confidence boost he received during an impressive Ranji Trophy campaign.
“Ranji Trophy is an important tournament. I had never played so many matches in the past, but this time Mishy bhaiya and Jayant were playing for India. So, I had a chance to grab. I had a good performance in seven matches,” Chahal said on Saturday.
For the first time in his eight seasons of First class cricket, Chahal played more than five Ranji games in a season. And his tally of 33 wickets from seven games certainly proves that he justified the tag of being Haryana’s lead spinner.
Chahal is looking forward to build on his performance in Kanpur in spin-friendly conditions at Nagpur, especially the long boundaries. “A big ground makes a difference as you can flight the ball. When the ground is big, the batsman needs to think which ball to hit. In a small ground, batsman can try hitting every ball but here he has to choose and try,” he said.
Jordan’s hopes
The date for the IPL player auction is yet to be decided. But many of the England players are trying their best to attract a bid from the franchises during the auction.
Fast bowler Chris Jordan was the latest to join the group. “I’m going back into the auction and obviously hope to get picked up,” said Jordan, who had a fruitful outing in IPL 2016 after joining as Mitchell Starc’s replacement for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“It’s a tournament I really enjoyed, it really helped develop me as a player from that mental point of view, playing in front of big crowds every other day almost and you’re under a lot of pressure to deliver and perform.
“With Bangalore we made it to the final and obviously we want to go that one step further but it’s a tournament I really enjoyed, it’s done really well and hopefully I go back and get picked up.”
