Harbhajan Singh expresses his happiness as Yuzvendra Chahal is picked in India’s T20 squad which will face New Zealand at Home
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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under the selection committee chairmanship of Chetan Sharma, announced a 15-member squad on Tuesday, which will face New Zealand in a three-match T20 series beginning November 17 at Jaipur.
While there is also a two-match Test series which will follow the three-match T20 series, the squad has only been selected and announced for the T20s as of now.
While the likes of Test skipper Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami have been rested, the fresh faces in Harshal Patel, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan and Ruturaj Gaikwad have earned they maiden-call ups after their stellar performances in the recently concluded Indian Premier League(IPL) in October.
The upcoming series would also mark the return of India’s off-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who was earlier dropped from the 15-member Team India 2021 T20 World Cup squad.
Veteran India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has expressed his happiness over Chahal’s inclusion in the squad.
Harbhajan Singh wishes Yuzvendra Chahal good luck for the series
It is worth noting that Harbhajan Singh had been critical of the BCCI when Rahul Chahar had been picked over Yuzvendra Chahal in Team India’s squad for the ongoing T20 World Cup in UAE.
Chahal, who had a few disappointing outings with the ball since 2019 in the shortest format of the game had to make way for Chahar, who was picked because of the extra pace he offered through the air (as per BCCI’s selection committee).
Harbhajan had even taken a sly dig at BCCI’s reasoning for dropping Chahal from the World Cup squad.
The BCCI today, in fact dropped Rahul Chahar from the squad after he played just a solitary match for India in the World Cup against Namibia.
“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 had said earlier.
“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”, he had further added.
Today, post his return to the side, Singh wished him all the luck while terming him a champion bowler.
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