Rajasthan Royals' premier leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is on the cusp of an all-time IPL (Indian Premier League) record and needs just three wickets to achieve it. The wily spinner has bagged 197 wickets in the lucrative tournament and is inches away from becoming the first player in the history of the competition to scale the milestone.
Chahal is already the leading wicket-taker in the history of the cash-rich league and if he bags three more scalps then the gulf between him and the other bowlers will increase even more.
Chahal is 14 wickets ahead of Dwayne Bravo, who is the second-leading wicket-taker in the IPL. Among the active players, Piyush Chawla of Mumbai Indians is third on the ladder with 181 wickets in 185 games.
Chahal has already featured in 150 IPL games and has a decent economy rate of 7.65. Chahal, 33, has bagged six four-wicket hauls and one five-for in the tournament and averages 21.25 with the ball in hand.
The Haryana-born is also closing in on Shane Watson, who is the second-leading wicket-taker for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. Watson picked up 61 wickets in the IPL for Rajasthan and Chahal has 58 already.
Notably, Rajasthan are going to play their sixth game of the ongoing season against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Chandigarh on Saturday (April 13).
If Chahal finds a place in the playing XI for Rajasthan then he will have a genuine shot at the feat.
Rajasthan Royals IPL 2024 squad:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Shubham Dubey, Keshav Maharaj, Navdeep Saini, Nandre Burger, Abid Mushtaq, Sandeep Sharma, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Singh Rathore
