The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) is ready to get underway on Friday (April 9), with defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) locking horns against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Ahead of the high-voltage IPL 2021 opener, MI skipper Rohit Sharma spoke about his side’s latest recruit Piyush Chawla, stating that the leg-spinner was a pretty good buy for them as they required a specialist spinner for the fourteenth season of the cash-rich league.
The Mumbai-based franchise bought Chawla for INR 2.40 crore in the players’ auction. So far, the experienced Indian leggie has played 164 matches, taking 156 wickets, which is the third-highest in the history of the lucrative league. The right-armer has played for franchises like Punjab Kings (PBKS), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
“I have played with Piyush since U-19 days, and I know he is a very attacking bowler, which is something we wanted in our spin bowling department. He was a good buy to get him into our squad,” said Rohit in a video shared by the official Twitter handle of MI.
“He is one of the highest wicket-takers in the IPL. He knows the format and opposition; he knows the players,” he added.
Not only Rohit, MI’s Director of Cricket Operations, Zaheer Khan also said that Piyush has the ability to bowl with the new ball, which is one of the major reasons the side decided to rope him in the squad during IPL 2021 auctions.
“He has been bowling with the new ball, so that has also been a point of discussion when we were looking at finding that experienced leg-spinner. We also have Rahul Chahar in the team, who is an upcoming young talent. The experience of Piyush will help him. Piyush has been in pressure situations; he has a big role to play and hopefully will be able to mentor other spinners in the squad,” said Zaheer.
