Yuzvendra Chahal has surpassed Dwayne Bravo to become the highest wicket-taker in the IPL. The legspinner picked up his 184th wicket in the tournament when he had Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana splicing a sweep to deep backward square-leg in his first over in Kolkata on Thursday.
"I never even thought about it [becoming the highest wicket-taker] when I started playing the IPL," Chahal told the broadcaster after breaking the record. "I was with Mumbai Indians for three years [when I started] but my journey actually started from 2014. There have been a lot of ups and downs and I've enjoyed a lot too. I've learnt from my downs, and what I'm today is because of my downfalls and [support from] my close ones."
Chahal claimed figures of 4 for 25 in his four overs against KKR, taking his tally up to 187 wickets. With successive four-wicket hauls in his last two innings, he has also raced up the wickets charts to claim the Purple Cap this season with 21 wickets, two ahead of Mohammed Shami at the moment.
His record-breaking feat came at Eden Gardens, which was also the scene of his IPL debut back in 2013. Chahal played just that one game for Mumbai Indians in the IPL before he moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore and established himself as the premier spinner for the franchise between 2014 and 2021. He often fronted up to bowl the tough overs on an easy-paced hit-through-the-line Chinnaswamy pitch and excelled with his variations. Though Chahal went to Rajasthan Royals in 2022, he is still the highest wicket-taker for RCB with 139 wickets in 113 matches at an economy rate of 7.58.
At Royals, Chahal forged a strong partnership with R Ashwin and then also with fellow legspinner Adam Zampa this season. In the era of quick wristspin and mystery spin, Chahal has showed that there is still a place for old-school legspin in T20 cricket. He has played fewer IPL matches than Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, Sunil Narine, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, and he has more wickets than all of them.
Chahal is also the top wicket-taker for India in T20I cricket, with 91 strikes in 75 matches at an economy rate of 8.13. Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is just behind Chahal, with 90 wickets in 87 T20Is.