Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai Indians head coach, expressed his pleasure at the form young wrist-spinner Rahul Chahar has shown through the middle-overs in the IPL 2021 so far.
After a poor first outing in the defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chahar has taken seven wickets in the following two encounters for MI. He bagged a four-fer against Kolkata Knight Riders and backed it up with a three-wicket haul versus Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A team boasting of strong batting depth and a fast-bowling attack, the only weak link in defending champions MI’s otherwise mighty juggernaut has perhaps been their spin department, with Chahar and Krunal Pandya not making up the most potent duo in the competition.
With MI playing 5 of their 14 league matches on Chennai’s slow, abrasive track this season, the team needed both Chahar and Krunal to come to the fore. Jayawardene is, thus, feeling pleased with how they’ve gone, especially the progress shown by his team’s first-choice leggie.
“When we started playing him (Chahar), I believe it was the 2019 season, and he had a breakthrough season. Even in the UAE, he bowled well; he had his ups and downs, he was consistent in his execution, but every year we see improvement in Rahul Chahar. Mind you he is still a young player.
“It feels as though he has been around for a long period, but he is also learning. Very happy the way he has come out, he is one of the leaders in our team, especially in the spin department.””
Jayawardene told the media.
Jayawardene pleased with MI’s adaptability
Jayawardene also expressed pleasure at how his team has adjusted to the conditions during the Chennai leg of their IPL 2021 campaign, having built their squad for normal times when they would’ve played seven home games at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
“Adjusting to those challenges is always the key for any batsman. I think we have been consistent with that approach. It is challenging but our boys have adapted pretty well. Sometimes we will make mistakes and that is a part of the game.
But we knew that coming to Chennai how the wickets are going to play, how we need to play as a unit. And every game is a challenge, we are playing a different opposition, we are not just playing CSK in Chennai.
So when you’re playing different oppositions, they will also try different tactics and the way they play is also different, so we also have to adjust to that,”
he said.
Placed in the upper half of the points table with two wins from their three outings, MI next play Delhi Capitals in Chennai on Tuesday (April 20).
