The former Indian leg-spinner, Piyush Chawla, has accused a young batter from the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sameer Rizvi, who featured in the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), of age-fudging. He commented on a show where the host told him that the 20-year-old Rizvi takes inspiration from Rohit Sharma, who is 37 years old.
Because of his power-hitting capabilities in the middle order of the batting department, Sameer Rizvi has renowned himself around the domestic circuit playing for the Uttar Pradesh side. For INR 8.4 crore, the MS Dhoni-led side gained the services of the batter.
The right-hander couldn’t show his capabilities in the maiden season of the tournament, having notched up only 51 runs in eight games at an average of 12.75 and a strike rate of 118.60 with a best score of 21, as he nailed four boundaries and a couple of sixes during the last season.
Watch: Piyush Chawla points Sameer Rizvi for age-fudging
When it comes to the shortest format of the game, the Meerut-born has smashed 346 runs in 14 innings at an average of 34.60 and a strike rate of 132.06 with the help of a couple of half-centuries at a best score of an unbeaten 75-run knock.
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Sameer Rizvi, leading the Kanpur Superstars, has carried them to the final of the ongoing UP T20 league, as he is currently the second-highest run-getter of the season with 411 runs in 12 innings at an average of over 40 at a strike rate of 151.66, besides celebrating a couple of half-centuries. He has also smashed the most boundaries (28) during the competition, along with holding the record of the second most sixes (29) of the tournament.
In the past, the batter was present in the podcast of Shubhankar Mishra, where he openly admitted that Rohit Sharma, the T20 World Cup-winning Indian captain, has been an inspiration to him, which the journalist mentioned during the show with the Mumbai Indians leg-spinner.
Once, he mentioned that Rohit had inspired Sameer Rizvi, Chawla was quick to ask the age of the batter and came up with a hilarious and cheeky response, accusing him of age-fudging.
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The UP batter has also featured in nine List-A games, where he has gathered 205 runs at an average of just under 30 and a strike rate of 74 with one half-century.
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Chawla, one of the veterans of Indian cricket, made his debut at 18, his last international game for the Blue Brigade came in 2012, in which he collected 43 wickets for the Indian team. The comments puzzled the cricketing fraternity. Even though it’s quite clear that Rohit Sharma has motivated the players from different generations.
The Nagpur-born always makes the environment comfortable for the newcomers on the side, which generates them the confidence to do well in the future. It will be interesting to see if Sameer Rizvi gets retained by the Chennai Super Kings for the next IPL season in 2025.