Yuzvendra “Yuzi” Chahal, born on 23 July 1990, is an Indian international cricketer who plays leg-spin for India in limited-overs cricket. He represents Haryana in domestic cricket, Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and has played county cricket for Northamptonshire. He is also the only player to have represented India in both chess and cricket, having played at the World Youth Chess Championship before giving the game up when he struggled to find a sponsor.
His IPL career began with Mumbai Indians, who signed him in 2011. He played only one IPL match in three seasons, against Kolkata Knight Riders on 24 April, but played in every match of the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, where he took 2 for 9 in three overs in the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru to help Mumbai defend 139 and win the title. At the 2014 auction Royal Challengers signed him at his base price of Rs 10 lakh, and he won the Man of the Match award against Delhi Daredevils that year. He was bought back in January 2018 and stayed with the franchise until 2021, including the 2016 final, which Bengaluru lost.
He joined Rajasthan Royals at the 2022 mega auction. On 18 April 2022, against Kolkata Knight Riders, he took a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul. At the start of the 2023 IPL, in Rajasthan’s opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he became the first Indian to take 300 wickets in T20 cricket. In April 2024 he became the first bowler in IPL history to reach 200 wickets. For Punjab Kings in 2025 he took 4 for 28 against Kolkata on 15 April, helping his side defend 111, the lowest IPL total defended to date, and was named Player of the Match.
Chahal made his One Day International debut against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on 11 June 2016, taking Richmond Mutumbami as his first ODI wicket, and his T20 International debut there a week later. In the second ODI he took three wickets for 26 runs and won his first international Player of the Match award. On 1 February 2017 he took 6 for 25 against England, the first six-wicket haul by an Indian in T20 internationals and, at the time, the best figures by any leg-spinner in the format. He took 23 wickets in T20Is in 2017, more than any other bowler that year.
His 6 for 42 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 18 January 2019 was the joint-best ODI return by an Indian against Australia, matching Ajit Agarkar’s 2003–04 figures, and was the best by an Indian spinner at the MCG. He was part of India’s squad at the 2019 Cricket World Cup and took 12 wickets there. In the first T20I against Australia on 4 December 2020 he came in as a concussion substitute for Ravindra Jadeja and was named Player of the Match, the first concussion substitute to win the award in an international match.
He took his 100th ODI wicket in February 2022, against the West Indies. He was left out of India’s 2021 T20 World Cup squad, which prompted debate, and he was in the squad that won the 2024 T20 World Cup, though he did not play in the tournament. After he was left out of India’s Asia Cup and World Cup teams in 2023, he signed for Kent for the last three County Championship matches of that season, and in August 2024 he signed a short-term contract with Northamptonshire and took 5 for 14 on his debut in the One-Day Cup against Kent.
Away from the field, Chahal married the dance choreographer and YouTuber Dhanashree Verma in Gurgaon in December 2020, and the couple divorced in March 2025. He is a brand ambassador for the crash game Aviator, according to Wikipedia. His record, from a childhood chess player to the first IPL bowler with 200 wickets, makes him one of India’s most distinctive modern spinners, and his numbers in T20 cricket, in the IPL and for India, are among the best by any Indian bowler.
Featured image: Yuzvendra Chahal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, July 2024 (file photo). Photo by Prime Minister’s Office, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
