Chahal 'the main puzzle Punjab Kings need to solve' in quest for playoffs

Last year, Yuzvendra Chahal the first bowler to reach the 200-wicket mark in the IPL. No one else has reached there yet - the next best among active bowlers is Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 186. But a year on, and five matches into IPL 2025 for his new team Punjab Kings (PBKS), questions are cropping up about Chahal's effectiveness.

In this IPL, Chahal has picked up just two wickets in five innings at an economy rate of 11.13 and has not bowled his full quota in three games. Since making his debut in IPL 2013, Chahal - a wicket-taking option - has never had an economy rate of over 9.41 (2024) in a season. This year, he is going at 11.13, the 56 he conceded in his four overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday not helping that number.

Piyush Chawal, another legspinner and the second-highest wicket-taker in the history of the IPL, felt Chahal has been playing a "safe game", which is new for him.

"Well, he created that chance [Chahal dropped Abhishek Sharma off his own bowling] and you need at least one chance, and he created that one and he has nobody [else] to blame for that," Chawla said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show. "He almost reached there but apart from that… later on when both the batters [Abhishek and Travis Head] were going after him, I didn't find that Yuzvendra Chahal which we used to see a couple of years back and even till last year. He was just not trying to get the batter out. He was just trying to toss it wide and playing more of a safe game, defensive bowling. That Yuzvendra Chahal we have not seen."

What would Chawla have done on a flat pitch like the one in Hyderabad where the opponents are playing a high-risk, high-reward game chasing a huge target?

"I have not seen him bowling googlies also. If you're bowling wide outside off stump for them [left-hand batters] and it's going away from there, so you eventually get a chance to get a wicket or something like that," Chawla said. "But he didn't bowl that, maybe because of the lack of form. If you see this season, he has bowled some 14-15 [15] overs and he's not bowled his four [overs] quite often, and he's conceding more than 11-12 runs in a season at the moment, which [makes] you feel you want to play a defensive game.

"You just want to get your four overs in and then try to pick up a wicket. But today, I felt it was the day when you have 245 runs on the board, any which way you're going for runs, so you should better try for wickets and if you pick up those couple of wickets, then you are in the game."

PBKS, who have never won the IPL, went hard for Chahal at the auction and spent INR 18 crore for him, making him the most expensive spinner ever bought at an IPL auction. He is their premier spinner. Though PBKS have won three of their five matches so far, will Chahal's form affect them as the race for the playoffs heats up?

"I think the few deliveries that he bowled when he picked up Travis Head's wicket, that is what we need to see Yuzvendra Chahal bowl more often," Wasim Jaffer said. "You're looking to spin the ball, looking to bowl googly, looking to put some revs on the ball, which I think we are missing from watching Yuzi. He is very defensive in his mindset and the pressure is pretty much visible on his face that, you know, he's off colour. But you know for Punjab to become good, he's the main puzzle that they need to solve."