Ind vs WI T20I: Coach, captain try to stop Chahal from batting, rule prevents

Yuzvendra Chahal is a great spinner. However, he is least known for his batting. He has so far scored just six runs in his entire T20I career. Indian team management has also little confidence in his batting. But their realisation of the same came a bit too late during the first T20I between India and hosts West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. It nearly resulted in an embarrassing situation for the No.1-ranked T20I side.

Kuldeep Yadav was clean bowled by Romario Shepherd in the first ball of the 20th over during India’s chase. At that time, the Men in Blue still required 10 runs off five balls with two wickets in hand. Arshdeep Singh kept India alive with a couple of boundaries in the 19th over. However, he came at the non-striker’s end after the completion of the over.

Well, India still had a chance. When Kuldeep was walking back to the pavilion, Chahal came to bat. However, he soon realised that coach Rahul Dravid and captain Hardik Pandya wanted debutant Mukesh Kumar to bat at No.10 and not him. Perplexed by the noise coming from the dugout, Chahal decided to walk back as Mukesh tried to hurry onto the field. But he wasn’t allowed to do so.

As per the law of the game, once a batter steps onto the field at the fall of a wicket, he can’t go back and send another. Chahal had to rush his way back into the middle again.

Eventually, India lost the match by a whisker.