Deepak Chahar shakes off rustiness to shine on his return to international cricket

The last few months have been quite tricky in the career of Deepak Chahar. The pace bowler suffered a left quadricep injury during the series against West Indies at home in February this year. What should’ve been a six-week absence from the game ended up taking six months of his career as Chahar required multiple rehabilitation stints at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.

The timing of his injury was rather unfortunate as well. The 30-year-old was just establishing his prowess as an all-rounder with match-winning knocks against South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies. Because of the gravity of his injury, Chahar inadvertently, had to miss the entire tournament of IPL 2022 despite being picked for INR 14 crore and becoming the second-highest paid player at the auction.

With the Asia Cup around the corner, he returned to fitness just in time but only to make the standby list. As a result, Chahar is starting from scratch all over again and he showed his excellence after shaking off initial rustiness in the first ODI against Zimbabwe.

Bowling with the new ball, he took some to get used to the match rhythm. By the fourth over, he seemed to be in the groove and as a result, Chahar ran through the Zimbabwe top order sending openers Innocent Kaia and Tadiwanashe Marumani as well as number three Wesley Madhevere back to the pavilion. He ended the day with figures of 3/27 after bowling seven overs.

“I think I have picked up from where I had left and today also barring first two overs, I bowled well. I bowled seven overs at one go, which indicates that my fitness levels are okay,” said Chahar.

Unsurprisingly, Chahar was elected as the player of the match for setting the tone of the contest early on. His bowling exploits along with Axar Patel and Prasidh Krishna’s brilliance helped the Men in Blue bowl out Zimbabwe for just 189.

The run-chase proved to be easy pickings for openers Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill who stitched a 192-run partnership without losing any wickets to take India home.

When asked about whether he feels he will be selected for the T20 World Cup in Australia, Chahar added that he trusts the hard work he has put in to improve his skills.

“I can’t say if I will be selected or not as that’s not in my hands but skill wise I have worked very hard.”