IPL 2020 Final: Here's why Mumbai Indians dropped Rahul Chahar in place of Jayant Yadav against Delhi Capitals

In the ongoing all-important IPL 2020 Final between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals, there was a big surprise in store for the millions of fans watching the game. At the toss, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma announced that their star leg-spinner Rahul Chahar will not be playing the game and instead, Jayant Yadav will take part in the all-important tie.

 Rahul Chahar has become Mumbai’s frontline spinner since the past season and even this season, he has performed amicably – grasping 15 wickets from as many games at a decent economy rate 8.16. He sits at the 11th position in the Purple Cap standings which is a very good return for a young Indian leggie. So the big question is – Why was Chahar dropped for this big game ?

The answer was given by Sharma himself in the toss – He said that they chose Jayant Yadav, an all-rounder who bowls right-arm off spin, as Delhi has many left-handed batsmen. Thus, it was just a tactical decision where Delhi’s southpaws will find it tough to score when Jayant’s ball moves away from them. Delhi’s lineup is filled with left-handers Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Shemron Hetmyer and Axar Patel being the notable ones.

The decision paid off as Jayant bowled an economical spell of 4-0-25-1 and got the huge wicket of Shikhar Dhawan in just the fourth over of the innings, as he cleaned up the left-handed Dhawan (15 off 13 balls) with a regular off-spinner.