Deepak Chahar - The New Swing King of India
For Deepak Chahar, the India cap took a long time to arrive. When he destroyed Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy just 2 years after being rejected by the Rajasthan Cricket Academy, it seemed as though India had found a new swing-bowling star. But Chahar never managed to string together a consistent sequence of games. There were frequent injuries, and whispers grew about whether he had the fitness to make it at the highest level.
Though he has since played a few first-class matches for India A, Chahar’s red-ball career has never reached the heights of that remarkable debut season. As the years passed, he honed his white-ball skills, but met with rejection there. A two-year stint with the Pune team in the Indian T20 League came and went with little recognition, and a new generation of quick bowlers seemed to have bypassed him in the selection queue.
But then the Chennai team bought him at the auction and MS Dhoni’s faith in his new-ball spells got him back into the limelight. After a superb season in 2019 where he took 22 wickets, he came up with a once-in-a-lifetime display against Bangladesh, a spell that brought back memories of his 18-year-old heroics.
Since then, he has established himself with the Chennai team in the Indian T20 League and was their most expensive buy at the 2022 auction. His displays for India have also showcased his lower-order hitting skills, with half centuries against Sri Lanka and South Africa in ODIs. Having thrived under Dhoni’s captaincy and the coaching of Stephen Fleming in Chennai, Chahar now has to earn the trust of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, the new captain-coach combination for the Indian team.
Still injuries have continued to frustrate him at key moments. With so many quick bowlers now in the mix, missing the T20I series against Sri Lanka in February 2022 was a big blow. Opportunities to cement a place in the XI before the T20 World Cup in Australia later in the year are going to be scarce, and all eyes will be on how Chennai’s ₹14-crore buy performs in a longer, 10-team edition of the Indian T20 League.
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Moeen Ali’s Personal Details
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- Name
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- Deepak Lokandersingh Chahar
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- Date of Birth
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- 7th August, 1992
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- Birthplace
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- Agra, India
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- Height
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- 5′11″
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- Batting Style
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- Right-handed batter
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- Bowling Style
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- Right-arm medium
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- Playing Role
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- Bowler
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- Major Teams Played For
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- India, Mumbai team, Gujarat team
Moeen Ali’s Current Rankings
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T20 33
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ODI --
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Test --
Deepak Chahar Career Summary
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- Format
- M
- Inn
- Wickets
- Best bowling
- Avg
- SR
- ER
- 4W
- 5W
- CT
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- ODI
- 7
- 7
- 10
- 2/37 vs. SL
- 31.30
- 31.20
- 6.01
- 0
- 0
- 1
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- T20I
- 20
- 20
- 26
- 6/7 vs. BAN
- 22.26
- 16.10
- 8.27
- 0
- 1
- 2
Deepak Chahar - Key Skills and Strengths
When Deepak Chahar burst onto the Indian cricket scene with incredible figures of 8/10 as Hyderabad were bowled out for 21 in the 2010-11 season, he was essentially a one-trick pony. He could get prodigious swing with the new ball, especially in wintry and overcast north Indian conditions. But once the ball got old, he was much less of a factor. Chahar had an excellent role model in Rajasthan’s Pankaj Singh, and there were others around like Praveen Kumar who relied on swing to wreak havoc. But Chahar’s problem was his tendency to break down with injuries. It was this lack of overall fitness that had made Greg Chappell reject him for the Rajasthan Cricket Academy. Later in his career, Chahar focussed mostly on T20 cricket, becoming a key cog in a champion Chennai team. But he upgraded his skills too, so much so that he is now a very tricky bowler in the death overs. He is also capable of giving the ball a good whack lower down the order.
Deepak Chahar’s Awards and Achievements
It took Chahar 8 seasons to wear the colours of the Indian cricket team after that incredible spell against Hyderabad in his debut season. His performances in the yellow of the Chennai team in the Indian T20 League eventually caught the eye of the national selectors, and he has made an impact in both the 50-over format and T20Is since.
Here are some of Chahar’s biggest achievements in international cricket:
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His 6/7 against Bangladesh in 2019 was chosen by the ICC as the T20I Bowling Performance of the Year.
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He helped Indian win an ODI in Sri Lanka in 2021 by scoring 69* at No.8.
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His 34-ball 54 in South Africa in 2022 was one of the fastest half centuries by an Indian in ODIs in that country.
Deepak Chahar’s Indian T20 League Journey
Chahar was never fit enough to make an impression in the Indian T20 League with the Rajasthan team. When he moved to the Pune franchise in 2016, he was little more than a fringe player, bowling just 12 overs across two seasons. But then, the Chennai team took a chance on him, paying ₹80 lakhs for his services before the 2018 campaign, and he repaid the faith with 32 wickets in 2018 and 19. He was still primarily a new ball asset, but he kept working on other skills too.
The last two seasons, when the Indian T20 League was played mainly in the UAE, fetched him 26 wickets as he became one of MS Dhoni’s go-to players. Though Chennai opted not to retain him before the auction, they bought him back for a whopping ₹14 crores.
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- Format
- M
- Wickets
- Best Bowling
- Avg
- SR
- ER
- 4W
- 5W
- CT
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- Indian T20 League
- 63
- 59
- 4/3 vs. Punjab
- 29.18
- 22.44
- 7.80
- 2
- 0
- 12
Deepak Chahar: FAQs
Deepak’s father, who retired from the Indian Air Force, set up an academy so his son could practice. New cricket balls don’t come cheap, and young Deepak went through many dozens of them in his formative years.
He went up to the families’ viewing gallery, got down on his knees, and proposed to Jaya Bhardwaj, his girlfriend.
A year after he left the India coaching post, Greg Chappell was in charge of the Rajasthan Cricket Academy he helped set up at the behest of Lalit Modi. In his eyes, Chahar didn’t have the fitness to be a fast bowler.
He had forged his reputation as a new-ball bowler, but 4 of his 6 wickets, including a hat-trick, came with the old ball in dewy conditions where the ball was extremely slippery.
Malti is his sister. She is known for her work as a model and an actress.