IPL 2020: Piyush Chawla Excited To Reunite With MS Dhoni At CSK

Piyush Chawla represented Kolkata Knight Riders from 2014 to 2019 after being a part of KXIP Punjab from 2008 to 2013. Chennai Super Kings are smart buyers in the Indian Premier League but they went on to place their biggest bid of the IPL 2020 auction, worth of Rs 6.75 crores, on Indian leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

Eventually, a lot of questions arose as CSK paid such a hefty amount to sign an Indian Piyush Chawla and head coach Stephen Fleming had clarified the recruitment of the seasoned leg-spinner. Piyush Chawla with 150 wickets is on 3rd position in IPL leading wicket-takers list jointly with Harbhajan Singh and after Lasith Malinga-170 and Amit Mishra-157 wickets.

Piyush Chawla Rated Highly And Proven As A Quality Leg-Spinner: Stephen Fleming

Piyush Chawla, who last represented the Indian national cricket team in 2012, is excited about his reunion with MS Dhoni after 8 years.

“Chawla is rated very highly and certainly the captain (Dhoni) has a great relationship with him. He’s proven that he’s a quality leg-spinner which we value very highly,” Fleming had said.

“If a captain is believing in you, what more do you want?” an elated Chawla said.

The right-arm leg-spinner was the part of the winning squads of the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup but he does not consider himself as a lucky charm for the captain.

“It’s not about lucky charm, because I wasn’t the only one who was in the 2007 and 2011 WC squad both. There were eight more players. So it’s not that’s it’s happened because of me alone. It’s just about how much cricket you play, how hard you work, it depends on that,” Chawla told First Post.

S Sreesanth, Yuvraj Singh, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, and Harbhajan Singh played beside skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in both the wins in 2007 and 2011.

Piyush Chawla Says Every Leg Spinner Wants A Good Captain And CSK Have World’s Best Captain In MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni retired from international cricket but will continue as captain for CSK.

“Definitely (excited about the reunion with Dhoni). (Any leg spinner would want a good captain). I am getting Dhoni bhai, world’s best captain,(what more do you want)?”

The former KKR spinner has credited his ex-captain at the Kolkata-based franchise, Gautam Gambhir, for the freedom that he got as a bowler and is confident that he will enjoy the same kind of freedom with MS Dhoni in the CSK camp.

“It’s always the same with Dhoni bhai as well. He gives freedom to the bowler, whatever you feel, go with it. He is always helping you out. And when he feels, this kind of thing might happen, then he gives suggestions to the bowler that let’s do this.

Whenever he thought that the bowler would need something in the game, he would advise from behind the wickets. So that is a very big help,” he added.

The leg spinner has exactly 150 wickets from 157 matches averaging 27.14. He had picked 14 wickets in 2018 and 10 wickets in 2019. Ahead of the 2020 season, he was released by KKR, and then went into the IPL Player Auction with a base price of INR 1 cr. After a bidding war with Kings XI Punjab, he was secured by CSK and became the most expensive capped Indian player.