Ignored for World Cup and Australia T20Is, Yuzvendra Chahal shines in Vijay Hazare Trophy for Haryana

Yuzvendra Chahal, Vijay Hazare Trophy — Image Source : GETTY Yuzvendra Chahal

Yuzvendra Chahal's absence from India's T20I squad against Australia surprised many. He wasn't considered for the World Cup either with Kuldeep Yadav preferred ahead of him. But then the left-arm wrist spinner played ODIs continuously ahead of him for almost a year and in terms of continuity, he was selected.

However, when it came to T20Is, Chahal played a lot of matches and the fans reckoned that the Kul-Cha duo will feature in two different white-ball formats now. Expectedly, Chahal and even the Indian fans were hoping for the leggie to get picked for the Australia series. But the selectors didn't include him while preferring youngster Ravi Bishnoi ahead of him.

Chahal is now featuring in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic One-Day tournament that commenced today, for Haryana and has shined in the very first game picking up six wickets for just 26 runs in 10 overs. Haryana faced Uttarakhand to get Group C matches underway today and after opting to bowl, they managed to restrict the opposition to just 207 runs.

Leg-spinner Chahal's performance was one of the main reasons as he sent back Jiwanjot Singh, Dikshanshu Negi, Swapnil Singh, Aditya Tare, Akhil Rawat, and Mayank Mishra. He bowled two maidens as well during his 10-over spell stifling the batters with his variations. Among other bowlers, Sumit Kumar and Rahul Tewatia also picked up two wickts each.

As for Uttarakhand, wicketkeeper batter Aditya Tare struck an impressive 65 off 68 deliveries with nine fours and a six to his name while Kunal Chandela scored 47 runs off 61 balls. But none of the batter could score big which led to them being bundled out for just 207 runs in the 48th over.

Playing XIs: