Piyush Chawla is an Indian cricketer who has been a part of the Indian national squad. The right-arm bowler specializes in the leg break style of bowling. Piyush Chawla has played a series of great matches for the Indian team. He has achieved a commendable average during those games as well.
Personal Life
He spent his childhood in Moradabad and learned the early essentials of cricket at Sonakpur Stadium under his first coach, Mr. Badhruddeen, who has also coached Indian National cricketer Mohammad Shami and young talents like Shiva Singh and Aryan Juyal. Piyush Chawla completed his schooling at Wilsonia College.
The 33-year old is happily married to Ms. Anubhuti Chauhan.
Domestic And International Career
Chawla started his career in the U-19 cricket team in 2004-05. He claimed 13 wickets in mere two test games. Piyush achieved a bowling average of well over 12.
He also played within the 2005–06 home series against U-19 Australia, where they won the five-match limited-overs series 4–1, taking eight wickets.
In the 2005–06 Challenger Trophy, Chawla got to play for India B. He only bowled three of a possible ten overs within the first match of the series. Chawla conceded 21 runs and picked up two wickets within the next game against India A. As India B reached the ultimate against India A, he took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar – bowled with a googly. Chawla also dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to finish with three for 49, but India A still won by three wickets.
He made his first-class debut three weeks later for the Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy.
Chawla scored 60 during a 92-run eighth-wicket stand with Harvinder Singh. He also finished with match bowling figures of 27.2–3–100–6, admittedly only getting one among the highest five batters once.
He proved himself again when he took eight overs of four wickets in 8 overs, giving away only eight runs within the U-19 World Cup final of 2006.
He debuted ODI with India on 12 May 2007 against Bangladesh. His debut was a highly successful one, with him taking three wickets.
In 2009, Chawla signed for Sussex County Cricket Club for a month to cover for Yasir Arafat, who was with Pakistan. In his first County Championship match against Worcestershire, he took a complete of 8 wickets within the game, came in at number 9 within the first innings, and scored 102* from only 86 balls.
He was the leading wicket-taker for Gujarat within the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy, with 32 dismissals in six matches. He was also the leading wicket-taker for Gujarat within the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19, with sixteen wickets taken in eight games. His international career came to an abrupt end in 2012.
IPL Career
Chawla played within the IPL for the Kings XI Punjab team from 2008 to 2013. Piyush is one of the most successful bowlers in the IPL. He has had a successful time in Punjab. After IPL 2011, he had taken 57 wickets in 55 matches, and only five players had a better record at the time. Piyush went to Kings XI Punjab after that season.
Chawla joined the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2014 IPL. He played with the squad till 2018. After a patchy 2019 season, he got released by KKR and surprisingly got bought up by another spin-heavy side, the Chennai Super Kings, who took him at a shocking price of Rs. 6.75 crores. For the 2020 IPL, Piyush Chawla joined the Chennai Super Kings. Furthermore, in February 2021, Chawla joined the Mumbai Indians’ side after the auction. He played his last IPL match on 8 October 2021. This match was against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Chawla did not perform too well in that game. Piyush Chawla is number three within the List of highest-wicket takers in IPL – having 140 victims from 144 matches (before the 2019 tournament), placed just behind Lasith Malinga and Amit Mishra.
Statistics
Piyush Chawla has played 290 matches throughout his career, including Test cricket, One Day International cricket, first-class cricket, and List A cricket. He has taken a total of 685 wickets, which include all formats of the game. As a batter, Piyush has scored a total of 6985 runs through all forms of the game as well.
Endnote
Piyush Chawla played the 2021 season with Mumbai Indians. Chawla did not perform too well for the Mumbai Indians’ side. He is not a part of any squad for the 2022 IPL. Moreover, even after playing soo many games in the IPL, no other franchise picked him for the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League.
Will he play in the following years’ IPL? That is a question that shall be answered next year only.
