Deepak Chahar recalled how MS Dhoni asked him to justify his batting potential. | Photo – IPL |
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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) pacer Deepak Chahar recalled MS Dhoni’s words from 2020 when the CSK skipper asked him to justify his batting potential.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) broke the bank to buy back Indian pacer Deepak Chahar at the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction. Chahar, who has been an integral member of the CSK squad since joining the team in 2018, was released by the franchise ahead of the mega auction. However, CSK went all out to get him back and spent a whopping Rs 14 crore (INR 140 million) to ensure they secured his signing.
Chahar became the most expensive bowler at the IPL 2022 mega auction and also became CSK’s most expensive auction signing of all time. While he has been excellent with the ball in the powerplay and has also improved his performances in the death, Chahar’s batting prowess has added another dimension to his game.
While he is a smart bowler, Chahar can be handy with the bat in the lower middle-order and his recent performances with the willow have only strengthened his case as an all-rounder. Chahar recalled how CSK skipper MS Dhoni had asked him in 2020 to justify his batting potential in the IPL and focus more on batting.
In an interview with SportsYaari, Chahar said Dhoni was having a conversation with him on the day he had announced his retirement in 2020. The CSK skipper had urged Chahar to justify his batting potential.
“One day Mahi bhai said to me… ‘you have done a good job with the bowling but haven’t justified your batting. I think you should do that’. He told me this, the day he announced his retirement in 2020. We were sitting in the evening and talking. Dhoni said I should focus more on batting,” said Chahar.
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Not many know but Chahar, who had played under Dhoni at the Rising Pune Supergiants was bouht by the franchise as a batting all-rounder. Chahar said he has been trying to become an all-rounder ever since he started playing cricket as a child and was probably a better bater than a bowler when he had joined the Rising Pune Supergiants.
“I have been batting since I was young and this pursuit of being an all-rounder had started back then itself. In 2017-18, I used to bat better because I was at home and so I used to practice batting a lot. In fact, I used to focus more on batting than bowling because there was a limit on the number of balls you would bowl in one day because doing more would take a toll on your body,” said Chahar.
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“When I went to Pune (Rising Pune Supergiants), I reckon my batting was better than my bowling. But after that, when I started playing more, especially overseas, I didn’t get much chances to perform with the bat. The amount of practice would come down. Whenever I played First-Class, the main batters would get more time. Because of this, the fluency in my batting got affected,” he added.
Since joining CSK in 2018, Chahar has improved much as a bowler and has also become a regular for India in white-ball cricket. He has so far played 58 matches for CSK in IPL and has 58 wickets to his name. Chahar has won two IPL titles with the Dhoni-led side and will be drawing a salary even bigger than that of his captain from IPL 2022.
