"Our relationship is beyond our cricket" - Yuzvendra Chahal on his bond with Rohit Sharma
Team India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is known to share a special bond with Rohit Sharma, who was recently appointed India's T20I captain after Virat Kohli relinquished the duties.
As the Men in Blue begin a new era under Rohit in the shortest format, Chahal stressed that his relationship with the opening batter also helps inside the ground because of the trust they have in each other.
Speaking to the Times of India on playing under Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal said:
"I have always had a special bond with Rohit. We are like family. Be it him or Ritika Bhabhi, they have always treated me like a younger brother. We always went out together for dinner.
"Whenever we are on the field, I always share my views with him, like the time we got Kuldeep (Yadav) to bowl from a certain end to Babar Azam in the 2019 World Cup and got him out."
The 31-year-old added:
"Our relationship is beyond our cricket. That helps on the field too when you trust someone so much. It’s always good to know that if I share something with him, there will be a positive response and vibe."
The upcoming three-match T20I series against New Zealand, starting November 17 in Jaipur, will be Rohit Sharma's first assignment as full-time T20I captain.
So far, he has led India in 19 games in the absence of Virat Kohli, winning on 15 occasions.
"I felt really bad" - Yuzvendra Chahal on being dropped from T20 World Cup squad
Chahal, who has been India's leading leg-spinner for the last few years, was surprisingly left out of the 2021 T20 World Cup squad in favor of Rahul Chahar, a move that didn't pay dividends.
When quizzed on how he dealt with the snub and made a superlative comeback in the second phase of IPL 2021 in the UAE, Chahal said:
"I was not dropped in four years and then I got dropped for such a marquee event. I felt really bad. I was down for two-three days. But then I knew the second leg of the IPL was still around the corner.
"I went back to my coaches and spoke to them a lot. My wife and family were constantly encouraging me. My fans kept putting out motivational posts. That buoyed me. I decided to back my strengths and overcome my confusion. I couldn’t have sulked for long because that would have impacted my IPL form."
Chahal finished with 18 wickets in IPL 2021, the second-highest for RCB after Harshal Patel's record tally of 32 scalps. He will look to keep up the good work in the three-match bilateral series against the Kiwis.