IND vs WI | Mental strength reason behind the yorker that dismissed Roston Chase, states Navdeep Saini

After Deepak Chahar injured himself ahead of the series decider between West Indies and India at Cuttack, Navdeep Saini made his ODI debut and was impressive as he picked the wickets of Shimron Hetmyer and Roston Chase. Saini was very impressive and did not show any nerves of a debutant as he bowled with a good line and length and his yorkers at the death were absolutely bang on the money and the wicket of Roston Chase is something that has been constantly talked about. Saini believes that it required immense mental strength to land the yorker consistently as it could easily become a juicy full-toss if things go wrong.

"I was practicing the yorker while playing Vijay Hazare Trophy. In limited-overs cricket, it is very important to bowl at the death. Also, I was playing Ranji Trophy, where you have to consistently hit one area, which helped a lot," Saini told Hindustan Times.

"You have to be mentally strong to execute anything. You may have practised less but if you have the mental strength to bowl a particular ball to a batsman in an international match, that is the biggest plus point," he further added.

While Chase had no answer for Saini's brilliant yorker, his extra pace was enough to trouble Hetmyer into playing a false shot and getting caught in the deep. Saini expressed his plan of bowling to the power hitters like Hetmyer and said that his pace is a big weapon for him.

"I was aware West Indies big-hitters love room outside off-stump. Mohit and I had discussed this. I decided to bowl short and close to Hetmyer’s body, and with my pace, I knew it won’t be easy to pull me from that length. (He was caught at fine-leg trying to pull)," he asserted.

Saini had made his T20 debut against the same opposition in the United States but 50 overs is a completely different ball game. But he thanked his teammates and especially skipper Virat Kohli for backing him to do well and help him ease into his ODI debut.

"Virat bhai only has one advise, ‘jo cheez tu abhi tak karta aa raha usi cheez ko khulke karna hai, bina dare, bina kuch soche.’(what you’ve been bowling till now, you must do it whole-heartedly, without fear or worrying too much). I was a bit nervous at the start of my first spell. He told me to just focus on the job," Saini stated.

"I was mentally prepared. I knew it was another golden opportunity to prove myself, so just went out and gave my everything," Saini concluded.