Yuzvendra Chahal credits being excellent at chess for teaching him patience in bowling

Indian cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal has been the national side's ace spinner in the limited-overs formats in the last few years. Yuzvendra Chahal is considered to be one of the most fun-loving characters on the cricket ground. The Indian leg-spinner is appreciated by his teammates as he keeps on entertaining them from time to time. However, during his formative days, he was an active chess player who might not have taken up the sport professionally on a full-time basis at all. Here is his story.

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IPL 2020: RCB team 2020 star Yuzvendra Chahal spills the beans on choosing cricket over chess

On Sunday, Yuzvendra Chahal went back to his old passion of chess as he headlined an online event organised by chess.com. Interestingly, Yuzvendra Chahal represented India at the World Youth Chess Championships in the past and is listed on the official site of the World Chess Federation. He is a former Under-12 national champion on 64 squares and is till date, the only person to represent India in both cricket and chess professionally.

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While talking with Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta and International Master Rakesh Kulkarni before the event started, Yuzvendra Chahal claimed that it is chess that taught him patience that he exhibits on and off the cricket field equally. Yuzvendra Chahal compared chess to Test cricket by saying in Tests, one may have bowled well on a particular day but not been rewarded with wickets. Yet they have to come back the next day and still give it their best, which makes patience the key. Yuzvendra Chahal further said that he has learnt to be patient for getting batsmen out.

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Yuzvendra Chahal was asked about his decision to choose cricket over chess, despite doing fairly well in the board game. Yuzvendra Chahal replied saying he did so because he had slightly more interest in cricket. Chahal said that he had to choose between chess and cricket. He added that he had his father's support when making a choice between the two as he was given full freedom to do so. 

Meanwhile, Chahal will play for the RCB team 2020 in IPL 2020 if it takes place. The IPL 2020, which was set to start from March 29, was postponed to April 15 amidst the coronavirus crisis.

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IMAGE COURTESY: BCCI TWITTER