"True strength of a warrior" - Yuzvendra Chahal shares motivational post during IND vs AUS T20I series
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal shared a motivational post on Friday, a day after the first India-Australia T20I, a series he was left out of.
The post included a silhouette of him pointing to the sky and a motivational quote that said the "true strength of a warrior" lay in holding oneself together when everyone else "thinks otherwise".
He captioned it as follows:
"See you at work. 🏏"
Chahal hasn't played any international cricket since August 2023 after a big dip in his returns in both ODIs and T20Is. He was left out of India's 2023 World Cup squad, the young side that went to the Asian Games, and now the T20Is against Australia.
The leggie, who's India's third-highest wicket-taker in T20Is, bowled well in patches this year but lacked the consistency of old. His lack of defensive options in crunch situations also became a talking point.
India looked to have zeroed in on Kuldeep Yadav as their lead spinner in ODIs while Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel look set to get a good run in T20Is ahead of next year's T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA.
"Seems like the selectors have made up their minds" - Aakash Chopra on Yuzvendra Chahal's exclusion
Speaking soon after India's squad announcement for the Australia T20Is, former India batter-turned-broadcaster Aakash Chopra said that, according to him, the exclusion felt like "selectors have made up their mind" that Chahal was no longer good enough.
"Ravi Bishnoi is there but Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal isn't. It's a slightly surprising thing to me that you have virtually turned your back on him. You neither played him in ODI cricket nor are you keeping his name for T20Is. Is he not good enough anymore?" he stated.
"You start getting a feeling like that, which is not a good feeling because Yuzi Chahal has done well. It seems like the selectors have made up their minds and you can't do anything if someone has made up their mind," Chopra added.
Bishnoi didn't have a great time in the first T20I either and went for 1/54 in his four overs - one of the best expensive spells by an Indian in the format.