Trinidad: Yuzvendra Chahal is best known for his white-ball abilities, but he is less well known for his batting. Only six runs have been scored by the India leg-spinner in all of his T20I matches to date. He has only scored 802 runs total across all cricket formats, including first-class, List A, and T20.
Therefore, one shouldn't hold the management of the Indian team responsible for their lack of faith in Chahal's batting. However, they only realized this during the first T20I between India and West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. It almost led to a humiliating situation for the top-ranked T20I team as a result.
In the first ball of the 20th over of India's chase, Kuldeep Yadav was clean bowled by Romario Shepherd, leaving the visitors needing 10 runs off 5 balls and two wickets in hand. At the non-striker's end was Arshdeep Singh, who had given India hope with a couple of boundaries in the 19th over.
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India was still sneezing. Chahal entered the field fully prepared as Kuldeep was making his way back to the pavilion, only to discover that coach Rahul Dravid and captain Hardik Pandya preferred debutant Mukesh Kumar to bat at No. 10 instead of him.
Chahal was perplexed by the noise coming from the dugout and chose to turn around as Mukesh hurried to the field. But he was prohibited from doing so.
A batter is not permitted to send another batter after entering the field at the time of a wicket falling in accordance with the rules of the game. Chahal had to hurriedly enter the center.
Arshdeep was run out in the penultimate ball after getting off to a quick start with a single, leaving Mukesh to hit a last-ball six. The pacer could only muster a single as the West Indies defeated the opposition by a score of four runs to take a 1-0 series lead.
Mukesh being sent ahead of Chahal may not have made much of a difference because there is little evidence that the right-arm pacer is nearly as useful with the bat as he is with the ball, but the Indian think tank could have planned it better.
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For the most part, the first episode of the series didn't seem to be building toward a thriller. In the end, it came down to the final ball. India were largely in control of the 150-run chase until Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma were in the middle, according to captain Hardik Pandya in the post-game presentation.
However, things started to get tense for the spectators after Shimron Hetmyer made an incredible catch that sent SKY back to the pavilion. Sanju Samson's dismissal and Pandya's bowling in Jason Holder's 16th over—also a maiden—marked the second turning point of the game.
India needed 37 runs off 24 balls with four wickets left to bat. A top-tier T20 team today would support its lower order to score those runs despite the slow pitch. not India though. In white-ball cricket, their lower-order exudes the least confidence. Axar was forced to score the majority of the remaining runs because Kuldeep, Arshdeep, Chahal, and Mukesh were still to come.
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