Aakash Chopra Backs Yuzvendra Chahal For T20I Comeback

Kohli had stressed that the team wanted to try out the likes of Rahul Chahar and Washington Sundar as it was looking to increase the depth in batting and post 200-plus totals consistently

Ahead of India's home season vs Proteas, ace wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have been kept out of the line-up for the T20Is, which starts on Sunday. However, former India opener Aakash Chopra believes that excluding wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to strengthen their lower batting order can even go wrong for the national team. India skipper Virat Kohli had said that the team management have opted to keep Kuldeep and Chahal out of T20Is  to increase batting depth and try out a new combination in the spin department. Skipper Kohli had stressed that the team wanted to try out the likes of Rahul Chahar and Washington Sundar as it was looking to increase the depth in batting and post 200-plus totals consistently. "Chahal will be back. Rahul Chahar is more of a bowler and Washington Sundar's batting at number 8 may not be needed anyway," Chopra said. Chahal, at the moment, is only part of the ODI team while Kuldeep Yadav is part of both ODI and Test squads, still it is uncertain whether they will be named in the playing XI. "The idea is if you have that much depth in batting you bat a certain way. You can't bat conservatively if you have that kind of depth. That is what England did. They changed the template completely. They focused on batting deep as they wanted to score 400 (in ODIs) and they achieved it many times," Chopra said. "It looks India is wanting to take the same aggressive approach in T20s and there is nothing wrong in that. Now, they need to start showing the intent of scoring 220 consistently. "Batting till 8, 9 and 10 is still ambitious (as you don't need them at all in a 20 over game) but if you are trying to score 220 it is fine," he explained.