Shane Warne was planning to pay a surprise visit to ‘fan’ Yuzvendra Chahal at Rajasthan Royals before untimely death
Rajasthan Royals (RR) leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has revealed that a surprise was being planned wherein Shane Warne was supposed to visit the franchise to meet him. However, the interaction never happened since the Aussie legend passed away before that. Chahal admitted that it took him a few days to overcome the setback.
The RR leg-spinner considers Warne his idol and even modeled his action on the Australian spin wizard until his U-19 days.
Speaking on Ranveer Allahbadia’s YouTube show, Chahal lamented how fate prevented him from meeting the Aussie great.
“Definitely, something is missing. I couldn’t meet Shane Warne sir. I came to know later that a surprise was being planned for me wherein he was going to come for a week. Unfortunately, what happened… It took me two to three days to overcome that,” he said.
The 32-year-old added that he was a big fan of RR before joining IPL due to Warne, who was the first captain of the Rajasthan franchise.
“I have been supporting Rajasthan from the start because of the legend Shane Warne. I used to always follow him. Till U-19, my action was like him. His poster where his tongue is out used to be in my room, so I used to support Rajasthan. In 2010, I was in their probable list. But at that time, there was a rule that if you are U-19, you can’t play IPL. That’s why I couldn’t be part of the team,” Chahal elaborated.
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Under Warne’s inspirational leadership, Rajasthan Royals became the inaugural IPL champions in 2008.
“That’s not in our hands” - Chahal on not playing for Mumbai Indians
Before making a name with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL, Chahal was signed up by Mumbai Indians (MI) but did not play a single game for them.
Asked why he felt that happened, the leggie replied:
“That’s not in our hands.” He went on to add, “My journey started there in 2011. Back then, there were no auctions. Teams used to sign you. I was playing the DY Patil tournament at that time and it helped me a lot. We lost the quarter-final and I was going back to the airport when my manager got a call from Reliance that we want to sign him.”
Admitting that he was very excited about being picked up the MI franchise, the Indian spinner added:
“I had gone inside the airport and had to come out. I went to their office in Navi Mumbai and signed [the papers]. I was very excited, had seen IPL on TV for three years. It’s a good journey.”
Chahal is now the leading wicket-taker in the IPL, having claimed 187 scalps in 145 matches at an average of 21.68.