Yuzvendra Chahal: My plan to Glenn Maxwell is not to bowl at the stumps

Yuzvendra Chahal: My plan to Glenn Maxwell is not to bowl at the stumps

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BCCI

Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has fully utilised Glenn Maxwell’s vulnerability outside the off-stump by picking his wicket in all the 3 ODIs and plans to bowl outside the off stumps. Moreover, Chahal considers David Warner as a threat and also enjoys playing with young spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

Yuzvendra Chahal has been the archenemy of Glenn Maxwell in the ongoing ODI series. Chahal never failed to pick Maxwell’s wicket and successfully restrained him from scoring more. The Haryana leg-spinner reveals that Maxwell’s susceptibility outside the area of off-stump has been the reason of his bad run of form in the ongoing series. Maxwell got stumped in back-to-back games, with the latest one being with the help of second consecutive stumping by MS Dhoni. 

“My plan to Maxwell is not to bowl at the stumps. That’s a wrong area. I tend to bowl outside the off-stump and I vary my pace. I know that if I can bowl 2-3 dot balls, he will step out and try to play an aggressive shot. However, in order to beat the batsman, the line and length has to be perfect,” said Chahal at pre-match press conference.

However, Chahal considers David Warner to be a huge threat, inspite of his poor form. In the 2nd ODI, Warner could only score 1 run in 9 balls and before Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked his wicket. Even in the 1st and 3rd ODI, he scored just 25 and 42 runs respectively. 

“Warner is Australia’s key player. When he settles in, he can play the big knock. Although Aaron Finch scored a century in Indore, Warner is the most dangerous player,” Chahal said.

“He has the experience of playing in the IPL and his mindset is to attack. If he plays 40-50 balls, he can score 70-80 runs. Our main aim is to get Warner out quickly so that in the middle overs, we can maintain the pressure,” he added.

Chahal also talked about how Indian spinners have an edge over Australians as they have already bagged 13 wickets compared to their Australian counterparts.

“Our spinners have taken 13 wickets as compared to the Australian spinners. We have used the conditions much better than them. That is our plus point. Adam Zampa is the only wrist spinner in the team and he is not featuring in the team consistently,” he said.

Chahal feels it is significant that the batsmen put up a good score as it gives the bowlers the freedom to bowl freely.

“If batsmen put up a good total on the board, then it gives the bowlers more confidence to bowl well. In the middle overs, we have bowled pretty well, be it the Sri Lanka series or in this series,” he said.

Chahal praised the efforts of the Indian bowlers who managed to restrict the visitors to just 59 runs of the last 10 overs which resulted in India having to chase a sub-300 score in the third game.

“In the last game, they were 234 for 2 after 38 overs. From that position, they were restricted to 293. It was a great exhibition by medium pacers at the death. Whatever spell the spinners are getting towards the end overs, we are getting wickets,” he said.

The leg-spinner also added that he had known Kuldeep Yadav for a very long time and both of them plan things efficiently by premeditating on bowling strategies ahead of the matches.

“I know Kuldeep Yadav for a very long time. We have played with and against each other a lot. If I bowl first, then I tell him about kind of assistance the track is providing. If he bowls first, he does the same and what’s the right area to bowl to a certain batsmen,” he said.

“The combination is good. Before the match, we discuss what the wicket will be like. We also discuss what ball to bowl to which batsmen. We always have plans,” he added.

Chahal also commended the way the nature of Chinnaswamy track has changed in the last few years and said that it has something for spinners.

“The wicket now is offering more turn to the spinners. It is a bit slow and there is grip, which was not there earlier. The boundaries here are small but if there is assistance in the wicket, you can get the wickets,” he added.

When asked about the ICC rules for size of the bat, Chahal said, “I am not aware of any player in the Indian team changing the size of the bat.”

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