IPL 2020 in UAE: Yuzvendra Chahal takes his tactical knowledge of chess to cricket, says Hesson
I think the way he reads the game, he is a very smart player, says Hesson
Dubai: Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday hailed Yuzvendra Chahal's performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, saying that the spinner knows how to outfox the batsmen.
RCB bowed out of IPL 2020 on Friday, as the side suffered a loss against SunRisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator clash. The side had finished the group stage at the fourth spot with 14 points from 14 matches.
"I think the way he reads the game, he is a very smart player, everyone knows he is a chess player. He takes that knowledge and tactical thinking into his cricket. He knows when to attack the stumps, he knows when to bowl wide off the stumps when batters are looking to attack him. He understands his game and more importantly he is able to execute. This year, we certainly tried to use him as an attacking option, getting 21 wickets for a leg-spinner was very good," said Hesson during a virtual press conference.
RCB head coach Simon Katich also said that Chahal was a part of the leadership of the side and he played a big role in mentoring the spinners like Pawan Negi and Shahbaz Ahmed.
"We made a decision early on, we looked at who was in our squad and who has the experience, we realised that someone like Chahal has not had the exposure of being in the leadership group, we were keen on getting Chahal included in that, his inputs were outstanding especially around the young spinners, obviously Washington Sundar played a big role. With Shahbaz and Negi in the squad, Yuzvendra Chahal had a big role in mentoring them, hopefully he is going to carry on for many years to come," said Katich.
Devdutt Padikkal was the leading run-scorer for RCB as he finished with 473 runs while Yuzvendra Chahal took 21 wickets for the side.
The Virat Kohli-led side struggled to score runs at a brisk pace during the middle phase of the innings, and this was apparently one major reason for RCB losing its last five matches this season.