IND v AUS 2020: 'Yuzvendra Chahal had a very ordinary tour' - Aakash Chopra reviews Indian bowling in T20I series
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has opined that Yuzvendra Chahal, who has set lofty standards for himself over the years, has been a bit of a disappointment on the tour of Australia.
He made this observation while reviewing the Indian bowling performance in the last T20I and the series as a whole in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
Aakash Chopra started by pointing out that Shardul Thakur did not cover himself in glory in his new role of bowling in the second half of the innings. He added that dropped catches didn't help the pacer's cause either.
"We saw Shardul Thakur is a new role in this match. He could not do too well there as he got hit. The catches were also getting dropped which is not a great thing."
The renowned commentator observed that Deepak Chahar also did not live up to expectations. He opined that both Chahar and Thakur resorted to too many variations rather than swinging the ball.
"I had expectations that Deepak Chahar will do a lot better in Australia. I am not sure when he is getting the swing, why is he bowling so many knuckle balls and doing change of pace. The same can be said about Shardul."
The former KKR player added that T Natarajan was the only pacer to hold his own in the series.
"The only shining star is Natarajan. So thumbs up for him."
Aakash Chopra on Yuzvendra Chahal's indifferent series
Aakash Chopra highlighted that Yuzvendra Chahal proved to be extremely expensive in almost all games apart from his match-winning performance as Ravindra Jadeja's concussion substitute in the first T20I.
"The big problem was that Yuzvendra Chahal, we had shouted so much that he should have been played in the first match and then he played as a concussion sub and gave a Man of the Match performance, has given more than 40 runs in his four overs in the other two matches. He has been very expensive."
The 43-year-old pointed out that Yuzvendra Chahal dished out indifferent performances in the preceding ODI series as well, thereby making it a forgettable tour for him.
"He conceded 80-odd runs in the first two ODIs, so he has been fairly ordinary as compared to what we expect from him. So this tour was not good at all for Yuzvendra Chahal in my opinion, it was very ordinary. So that's a bit of a disappointment."
Aakash Chopra signed off by observing that Washington Sundar did a decent job as he was fairly economical in two out of the three T20Is.
"Washington Sundar got hit in just the one match. The other two matches went well. So he was good."
Yuzvendra Chahal conceded 160 runs in the two matches he played in the ODI series against Australia while taking just one wicket.
Just when it felt like he had regained form with a match-winning performance in the first T20I, Yuzvendra Chahal was again taken to the cleaners by the Aussie batsmen in the final two matches of the shortest format of the game.