India call Chahal back after sending him to bat in the first T20I against West Indies
The incident took place when India needed 10 runs off 5 balls to win the first match of the five-match T20I series
It wasn’t a good start for India in the five-match T20I series against West Indies as the Men in Blue lost the first match in Trinidad by four runs giving West Indies a 1-0 lead in the series. With the pitch being dry West Indies batted first after winning the toss. The Men in Maroon got off to a shaky start as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and the batters failed to convert the start they got. The only shining light in an otherwise average batting performance from the West Indies was their captain Rovman Powell with an individual score of 48 and former captain Nicholas Pooran who scored a quick-fire 41 which got the team close to 150 as they ended up with a score of 149-6 at the end of 20 overs.
India Falter
Chasing a target of 150, India got off to a slow start as they lost opener Shubhman Gill in the third ball of the innings when he was foxed by spinner Akeal Hosein. His partner Ishan Kishan followed him soon when he tried to hit Alzarri Joseph over his side but was out caught in doing so. Tilak Varma who walked in to bat at number four in his debut match started positively by hitting back-to-back sixes and was looking good to score a fifty on debut before he was caught on the boundary. The pitch kept getting slow and playing big shots wasn’t easy which was evident by the fact that batters like Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson found it difficult to clear the boundary as they were playing at a strike rate of only 100 at a point when the team needed big overs. Once they got out the match was out of India’s and they eventually lost it by four runs.
The Drama
An interesting thing happened in the last over of the match. When Kuldeep Yadav got out there was a bit of confusion as Yuzvendra Chahal walked in to bat at number ten but then walked out as the team management wanted to send Mukesh Kumar instead of Chahal. But according to the law if a batter has crossed the boundary rope he or she can not go out unless given out or retired. In this case, because Yuzvendra Chahal has already walked in he wasn’t allowed to go out so he batted at number ten for India.
