Piyush Chawla went unsold on the IPL 2022 mega-auction however the seasoned leggie didn’t give up on cricket. He stayed at it and performed quite a few membership video games, native tournaments, and home white-ball tournaments for his state aspect Gujarat earlier than lastly attracting a bid of Rs 50 lakh from Mumbai Indians on the IPL mini-auction in December final yr. Chawla, 34, didn’t appear to be a long-term funding from MI, who banked heavy on youth proper from the mega public sale. More than the long run, it was to repair the rapid drawback of spin.
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Ever since Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya went to Punjab Kings and Lucknow Supergiants, respectively, MI have lacked chew within the spin division and tried to repair it with Chawla. Still early days into the 2023 season however the Chawla transfer is paying good dividends for the MI camp. On an evening when others leaked runs in opposition to RCB, he went at solely 6.5 in his 4 overs, scalped the harmful Ajinkya Rahane within the CSK fixture and returned with three wickets within the six-wicket win over Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.
Game time over nets
Well earlier than he was picked by Mumbai Indians, Chawla turned up for Life Cricket Club within the very aggressive All India SPJ Cup Season 2. The event was performed on the Jamia Sports Complex, New Delhi in August and had IPL regulars like Rahul Tewatia, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Mavi, Manan Vohra, Lalit Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy. In three fixtures, the leggie picked 4 wickets and maintained a commendable financial system charge of seven.50, and had a helpful contribution with the bat too.
For Chawla, it’s sport time over lengthy spells within the nets and he prefers to play high quality club-level tournaments to remain within the rhythm. After the event in Delhi, the skilled campaigner joined the Gujarat group for the home white-ball competitions, bought a bid from MI at IPL public sale after which lastly bought into IPL preparation mode with the DY Patil T20 event in February this yr. He didn’t take many wickets, 3 in six fixtures, however led a younger Reliance 1 group to the title.
“I am somebody who prefers bowling four overs in the match than bowling in the nets. You get to know whether a ball is a good ball or bad ball in a match. So I make sure I am playing a lot of matches. Whenever I get the time. Whenever the good tournaments happen – the one in Delhi you mentioned and then the DY Patil in Mumbai – so I played those and also played domestic white-ball for Gujarat. So those are enough games for me to prepare myself. And then obviously I make sure I am working on my fitness as well,” Chawla mentioned in response to a News18 CricketSubsequent question on the post-match presser.
Sticking to strengths
Since the opening sport of IPL 2023, Chawla has seemed keen and prepared. He continues to be an enormous within the event and is presently fifth within the main wicket-takers tally with 161 scalps in 168 video games. He is behind Amit Mishra (169), Lasith Malinga (170), Yuzvendra Chahal (174) and Dwayne Bravo (184). May or not it’s a membership sport in Delhi or an IPL fixture for Mumbai Indians, the drill hasn’t modified for Chawla and he’s “more than happy” sticking to his strengths.
“It’s true that I am not playing much cricket these days but I make sure whatever games I can play, I make sure I give my 100% and put my body on the line. Sometimes when you go for a local game or a club game, you tend to lose your thing, you just come and bowl. I make sure I am bowling with my full potential, what I can do for the team and I don’t watch much cricket to be very honest. If you bowl a good ball, it’s a good ball in any format for any batter. So I just prepare myself and I make sure I am going to strengthen my thing… something which is helping me throughout my career. Everyone knows that PC is coming and he is going to bowl a wrong’un but I still end up getting wickets with those balls. So I am more than happy doing that,” mentioned Chawla.
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Impact Player rule rising longevity?
Amit Mishra for LSG and Chawla for MI, it’s been refreshing to see the skilled leg-spinners roll again the years within the ongoing season of the IPL.
With the Impact Player rule, the groups have the choice of utilizing them as per scenario/match-ups and probably changing them with a specialist batter within the different half of the competition. Chawla, nevertheless, insisted that he’s not getting used as an Impact Player due to his batting expertise decrease down the order too.
“I am not being used as an impact player because I bat also lower down the order. It’s for the people who don’t bat or don’t bowl. Don’t take my name that longevity increases,” he laughs.
“If that comes into play, it makes the game a little more interesting. Now all the batting teams bat till No.8, 9. So it makes a difference as a team and if you are playing on a good batting wicket, even 210-220 is chaseable,” mentioned Chawla.
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