‘I am surprised that his ranking is so low’ – Rajkumar Sharma questions Yuzvendra Chahal’s status as India’s Premier Spinner

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has questioned Yuzvendra Chahal’s status as India’s number one spinner and he is quite surprised to know that Chahal is ranked as low as No.27 in the ICC T20I rankings for bowlers.

Many pundits and former players have gone on to claim that Chahal is India’s best spinner in the white-ball format. Despite that, Chahal ranks 27th in T20Is and 18th in the ICC ODI Rankings for bowlers.

He didn’t have the best times in the recently concluded Asia Cup either. Chahal picked up just one wicket in the first three games that India played, before picking up three wickets in the match against Sri Lanka.

“We boast that Chahal is our No. 1 spinner in T20Is as well as one-day cricket, but I am surprised that his ranking is so low in world cricket,” Rajkumar Sharma told India News Sports.

“If Team India’s top spinner is ranked No. 27 (in T20Is), then it’s really unfortunate. It means that he hasn’t performed very well, which is why he is low in the rankings. Other than him, there are no other very good spinners around, so India definitely need to work on their bowling,” Sharma added.

When we look at Chahal’s overall bowling record, 83 wickets in 66 T20Is at a strike-rate of 18.0 look quite impressive. But is career economy rate of 8.08 is quite high, which suggests that he turns out expensive on many occasions. Yet it has been his wicket-taking ability that has allowed Chahal to retain his place in the Indian side over the years. But even wickets have dried up quite a bit for him in international cricket in recent years.

The 32-year-old has been averaging 28.38 in T20Is since 2020 as compared to his career average of 24.32. His strike-rate has dropped down to 21.1 as well and that’s why Sharma has expressed his concerns over Chahal’s place in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup that will start in Australia next month.