The Indian team will be flying high after they beat Sri Lanka comprehensively in the third T20I in Rajkot by 91 runs. While Suryakumar Yadav was the hero of the match for the Indian team with the bat with an unbeaten ton of 112, the bowlers also did not disappoint as they scalped wickets in tandem with an eye-catching display. And one such show came from veteran spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who added another feather to his cap by scalping two wickets on Saturday (January 7).
Chahal vs Bhuvneshwar in ‘Nervous Nineties’
The race to be India’s top T20I bowler took yet another turn on Saturday as Chahal scalped two wickets to move to 90 T20I wickets. The brace of wickets from the Indian spinner saw him go level with speedster Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the most T20I wickets for India. Both Bhuvneshwar and Chahal now have the same number of wickets in the T20I format and will try to become the first centurion for wickets for India in the format.
Most T20I wickets for India
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 90
Yuzvendra Chahal – 90
Ravichandran Ashwin – 72
Jasprit Bumrah – 70
Hardik Pandya – 64
Before the match, Chahal was on 88 wickets in the format, having scalped a wicket in the second T20I in Pune. Chahal needed three wickets to leapfrog Bhuvneshwar while he needed two wickets to go level with his fellow teammate. In the 10th over of the Sri Lankan innings, 32-year-old Chahal scalped Charith Asalanka on 19 at the hands of Shivam Mavi while in his very next over in the 12th, he scalped Dhananjaya de Silva on 22 to break the back of the visiting team’s innings, while also going level with Bhuvneshwar Kumar for most T20I wickets for India in T20Is.
It is worth noting that, Chahal needed 13 matches less than Bhuvneshwar to achieve the tally of 90 wickets. It took 74 matches for Chahal to reach the tally of wickets while Bhuvneshwar needed 87 matches to reach the 90-wicket mark.
When is the next T20I series?
After India won the final T20I in Rajkot, they clinched the T20I series against the neighbours by a margin of 2-1. The India team will next play against New Zealand at home in February, where both Bhuvneshwar and Chahal could be seen in action if the new selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headed by Chetan Sharma decides to choose both the players for the series.
