Since making his limited-overs debut for India in 2016, Yuzvendra Chahal has been a staple player in the Indian line-up. However, he lost his place in the Indian side in the last couple of years,
Last year, the leg-spinner was absent from the T20 World Cup squad, but he returned in the shortest format in November, and also represented India in the ODI series against South Africa earlier this year.
Chahal was originally picked for Team India after putting up strong performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Royal Challengers Bangalore, which he joined in 2014.
The Haryana bowler worked closely with the franchise's head coach, New Zealand's legendary former captain Daniel Vettori, for the following five seasons.
Chahal spoke about playing under Vettori and how having the former left-arm spinner as head coach aided his own game in a recent interview with Ravichandran Ashwin on his official YouTube channel.
“He had become the head coach when I joined them in 2014. He was a massive help for me in my earlier days at RCB. As a bowler, as a human being, as a person with cricket knowledge, he helped me a lot. He never used to change my bowling style, he just used to let me know how the ball is coming out and whether it's drifting in a lot and stuff like that,” Chahal told Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
"He used to pull me aside and make me bowl extra overs on open wickets. (Helped me in) Only those simple, small body movements. And I had to improve on that only. He used to send me bowling videos after 3-4 matches. But he never put me under any pressure on me as head coach.
“He clearly told me there are 14 matches in the tournament and it is a T20 format. You can have 3-4 bad games, but for those remaining 10 matches, the economy must be under 7. I don't want you going for 8-9 runs per over in seven matches and 7 runs per over in the remaining games. I'm giving you a 3-4 match margin.”
Chahal went on to say that Vettori's advice about the necessity of "wrist position" is still useful to him even today.
"He was my favorite left-arm spinner. I used to learn a lot from him on how to change my pace using the same action in the same match. I used to bat against him in the nets to learn these tricks. I couldn't read him at all.
“He told me that it's all about wrist position and by changing it in the last moment, it would become difficult for the batsman to read it. Then I realized that you don't have to change the action and the only key factor is the wrist position. To this date, that advice still helps me,” said Chahal.
