Totally finished: Aakash Chopra condemns BCCI on Yuzi Chahal’s CT 2025 exclusion

Former Indian cricketer turned pundit Aakash Chopra lambasted BCCI and Indian team management for not selecting leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in India's squad for upcoming Champions Trophy. 

India preferred Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel as spinners for the competition. The Men in Blue will play all their games in slow conditions of Dubai which generally aid the tweakers. 

Chahal hasn’t played for India since August 2023 despite being part of the 2024 T20 World Cup squad. Chopra, speaking on his YouTube channel said that a special talent like Chahal was getting wasted by not being used enough. He felt that has brought Chahal’s India career to a premature end. 

“Yuzvendra Chahal has been totally finished. His file has been closed. I have got no idea why they did that,” Chopra said. 

“It is an interesting case. He last played in August 2023. So it's been two years for him. His numbers are also very good. He has picked up a lot of wickets and was consistently doing well.

“Because it's been two years since it (Chahal's file) has been closed, there is no place for Yuzi also here because as soon as you suddenly pick him out of the blue, it will be seen as a regressive step.”

So far, Chahal has taken 121 wickets in 72 ODIs at an economy of 5.26. His 96 T20I wickets (the second most by an Indian man) have come at an economy of 8.19. His numbers in the IPL are even better, where he has scalped 205 wickets in just 160 games, making him the leading wicket-taker in the league's history. 

He will participate in IPL 2025 for the Punjab Kings, who paid whopping INR 18 crore to acquire his services.