On Monday afternoon, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) announced India’s limited-over squad for upcoming Zimbabwe tour where BCCI gave a chance to some youngsters on that tour. Yuzvendra Chahal is one of them.
Playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing IPL 2016, Yuzvendra Chahal is showing his talent on the pitch. The 25-years old leg-spinner is currently purple cap (the most wicket-taker of the tournament) holder with 19 wickets. So, his selection for the Indian squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour was not shocking to the Indian cricket fans.
Now we will talk 10 interesting facts about Yuzvendra Chahal
- Yuzvendra Singh Chahal was born on 23rd July 1990 in Jind district Haryana, India.
- Apart from being a cricketer, Chahal is also a very good chess player. Since childhood, Chahal has an equal interest in both chess and cricket.
- Chahal was U-12 national chess champion in 2002. After that, he represented India at the Asian Youth Championship (U-12 category) in Kozhikode and also represented U-16 India at the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece. Chahal is going to be the first player to represent India in chess and cricket. However nowadays, cricket is Chahal’s main sport and chess is more of a hobby. However, he is still listed on FIDE’s (Fédération Internationale des Échecs/ World Chess Federation) official site. As per latest FIDE ratings, Chahal’s rating is 1956.
- The leg-spinner attracted attention in the National U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy 2009 for the first time. He finished as highest wicket-taker in that tournament with 34 wickets.
- Chahal made the first-class debut for his state Haryana in 2009 against Madhya Pradesh at Indore in Ranji Trophy (Plate League).
- Till date, Chahal has played 20 first-class matches, 25 List-A matches and 77 T20 matches where he has taken 37, 25 and 80 wickets respectively.
- Chahal made his IPL debut in 2013 for Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians bought him in 2011 at his base price (INR. 10 lakhs).
- RCB bought the leg-spinner at the IPL Player Auction 2014 with the base price (INR. 10 lakhs).
- Chahal was highest wicket-taker for RCB in IPL 2015 with 23 wickets. Chahal was third highest wicket-taker in IPL 2015.
- Apart from cricket and chess, Chahal is also a football lover. He is a Real Madrid supporter and His most favourite footballer is Cristiano Ronaldo.