From a 17-year-old leg-spinner making his debut with the Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017 to an 18-year-old leggie bought by the Mumbai Indians for a whopping 1.9 crore at the 2018 IPL auction, Rahul Chahar sure made headlines in a short span of just one year.
On his IPL debut for RPS, he managed to get the big wicket of Hashim Amla. A deceptive googly mixed up with a stock leg break delivery is a huge highlight of his expertise. Despite picking up 10 wickets in 4 Youth ODIs while playing for the Under-19 team in England, he was not selected for the U-19 World Cup.
But the unstoppable youngster put up a great show with the ball in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament by scalping 6 wickets in 4 games.
Here are the top 10 interesting facts about the rising star from Rajasthan, Rahul Chahar:
1.) Rahul used to bowl quick like his cousin Deepak Chahar but finally became a leggie after the latter told him that he was better in the leg-spin department.
2.) He stopped attending school once he decided to be a cricketer and focus on the game. He gives all the credit to his paternal uncle and his brother for his growth and success at such a young age.
3.) He made his First-Class debut for Rajasthan against Odisha in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy when he was only 16 years old.
4.) Soon, in fact, in the very same season, he was roped in by Rajasthan to play against Madhya Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare trophy. He played 5 matches and took 6 wickets with best figures of 3/33 in the tournament.
5.) The Rising Pune Supergiant bought him for his base price of INR 10 Lakh at the 2017 IPL auction. He played only 3 games and his performance included 2 wickets at an economy of 8.29.
6.) In October 2017, BCCI had named Deepak Chahar in the Board President XI squad that was all geared up to play against opponents New Zealand but later, the Board admitted that they had made a mistake, and Rahul was included in the squad. But he did not get a chance to play in any of the 2 games.
7.) Rahul kept in touch with his RPS teammate Imran Tahir and got the golden opportunity to receive many match-winning tips from the South African leggie.
8.) He said he greatly admired MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane for being “good humans first”.
9.) His IPL debut was his T20 debut as well. He had no prior experience in playing in the T20 format of the game.
10.) He made his T20I debut against the West Indies in Guyana on August 6.
