Coach Dravid expresses caution over setting expectations for teen sensation Vaibhav S

Chahal picked up a stunning hat-trick in the penultimate over. © BCCI
Yuzvendra Chahal's career has a strange arc. No Indian player has taken more wickets in T20 cricket than his 377 and up until very recently he was India's leading wicket taker in T20 Internationals (96 wickets). Yet, he has not featured in a T20 World Cup game for India though he was a part of the extended squad in the 2022 and 2024 campaigns. The one he missed was the 2021 edition, where five other spinners superseded him despite being the incumbent spinner in the lead up to the tournament. The reason provided for his omission was he was relatively slower through the air compared to the ones that made the cut for the slower wickets in UAE.

IPL 2022 soon followed and Chahal found a new home in Rajasthan Royals and had R Ashwin to partner up and had no confines of the Chinnaswamy to contend with. He finished the season as the Purple Cap holder with a record 27 wickets, still the joint most by a spinner in a single edition of the IPL. From being someone who predominantly outsmarted the batters by staying away from their hitting arc or cramping them for room in his RCB days, he turned to a more classical leg break bowler beating the batters with dip, drift, and turn. From bowling around 27% googlies in the two previous editions, Chahal bowled only 10% in the 2022 season further underlining the transformation in his methods.

Despite ending as the leading wicket taker in the 2022-24 IPL cycle, he was surplus to the national team's requirements, having last featured in a T20I in August 2023. In the cycle post the 2024 T20 World Cup, India have preferred the likes of Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi whose average speeds sit north of 95 kph over Chahal, whose top speeds are clocked around that range.

Probably fuelled by those thoughts, he started off the season bowling quicker than his optimal speed. The average speed in his first five games of the season read 87.5 kph and bagged just two wickets at an average of 83.50 and conceded at 11.13/over. The turnaround happened in the low scoring thriller in Mullanpur against KKR where he turned an improbable defense to a win picking 4/28 beating batters with drift and turn. In the four innings since, he bagged 11 wickets at 9.72 and an ER of 7.64, the icing on the cake being the hat trick at Chepauk. His average speed in these four games - 82.9 kph. In this IPL, Chahal has bagged eight wickets at 10.75 with speeds under 85 kph (ER 7.81) in comparison to five at 37.40 with speeds clocking 85+ kph (ER 10.11).

Chahal in recent times has had a big bias bowling to right handed batters over southpaws. In IPL 2025, he has dismissed three left handers at 55.33 (ER 12.14) compared to ten right handers at 10.80 (ER 7.04). Nearly 70% of his deliveries to left handers have been over 85 kph in which he conceded at 12.71 (one wicket). At his prime in IPL 2022, only 52% of the balls to left handers were over 85 kph. He has done marginally better slowing down under 85, picking two southpaws and going at 9.46/over.

Chahal vs RHB in IPL 2025

Speed range Wkts Avg SR ER % balls
< 75 kph 0 7.71 7.4%
75-79 kph 3 3.00 4.33 4.15 13.8%
80-84 kph 3 9.00 6.67 8.10 21.3%
85-89 kph 3 14.67 11.67 7.54 37.2%
90+ kph 1 18.00 17.00 6.35 18.1%
Chahal vs LHB in IPL 2025

Speed range Wkts Avg SR ER % balls
< 75 kph 1 19.00 10.00 11.40 11.8%
75-79 kph 0 NA NA 3.60 5.9%
80-84 kph 1 19.00 11.00 10.36 12.9%
85-89 kph 0 NA NA 11.84 43.5%
90+ kph 1 52.00 22.00 14.18 25.9%
In comparison, he has varied the pace across the spectrum far more equitably against right handers and deceived the batters with slow loopy ones as the clincher. Angkrish Raghuvanshi was set up with a 90.8 kph wide down the leg side followed by a floating leg break at 76.6 kph that the batter hit to backward point. The trick was repeated at Chepauk against Deepak Hooda, a dismissal that eventually culminated in Chahal's second IPL hat trick. Anshul Kamboj was beaten by a flatter one at 89 kph that knocked back his stumps and the hat trick was completed when Noor Ahmad skied another loopy delivery at 84.4 kph outside off.

While he isn't the same bowler whom a captain could entrust to bowl at any stage of a match, he is in his elements when he has the right matchup in front of him. If Punjab has to break the Play Offs hoodoo, Chahal will certainly have a big part to play in that.