Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has said that he cannot accept that Rahul Chahar is a better leg-spinner than Yuzvendra Chahal and questioned why the Rajasthan bowler was preferred over the Haryana leggie in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup 2021.
The Virat Kohli-led team has failed to reach the semi-final stage. India lost their first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand comprehensively, which hurt their chances for the semi-finals significantly.
Harbhajan Singh questioned the omission of Yuzvendra Chahal from the squad, as Rahul Chahar, who was picked over him, hasn’t played a single match for India in the tournament thus far.
“When they picked Rahul Chahar over Yuzvendra Chahal for the T20 World Cup, they reasoned that he bowls quick which is why we selected him. Shortly after that, Chahal had a very good IPL outing. He took 15-16 wickets in the season (18 wickets in 15 matches). Meanwhile, Rahul Chahar hasn't played a single game in the World Cup yet," Harbhajan Singh was quoted by India Today.
"To be honest, I don't accept that Chahar is a better bowler than Chahal. Chahal is a dangerous bowler and the number of matches he has won for the Indian team in the past show for it. And even when you selected Chahar, why didn't you play him? Ashwin played ahead of him after the first two games. I didn't understand that thought process.
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When Ashwin was dropped way back in 2017, you said we need wrist spinners. We brought Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav and they won us many games. Now suddenly, both Kuldeep and Chahal are absent and we are back to Ashwin and Jadeja. I don't understand this," he added.
India will play Namibia in their final league stage match in T20 World Cup 2021.
