Yuzuvendra Chahal walks out to bat despite management’s preference of sending Mukesh Kumar during 1st T20I against West Indies

Yuzvendra Chahal recently made headlines as he mistakenly walks into the field to bat at the 10th position, during the first T20I match between India and West Indies held on 3rd August 2023 at the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, Trinidad.

The bizarre incident was witnessed as the Indian cricket team lost multiple because while chasing a decent target of 150 runs. According to the team batting lineup list, Chahal was scheduled to bat at the number 10th position.

However, during a turn in events, the Indian team’s head coach, Rahul Dravid and captain Hardik Pandya decided to call the youngster Mukesh Kumar to replace Chahal as the number 10 batsman. Chahal remained unaware about the change and mistakingly, walked in to bat instead of Mukesh.

As soon as Chahal was informed about the changed decision, he tried to walk back to the dugout, but the umpires on the field intervened as they enforced the rule that a batsman cannot leave the pitch or field once he steps onto it after a wicket falls. Consequently, Chahal batted at the number 10 position and scored a single run on the one delivery he played.

West Indies won the first T20I match against India by 4 Runs

Both the batsmen Chahal and Mukesh could not create an impact with their innings, and the thrilling knockout went into the West Indies cricket team’s favour as they sealed an easy victory by four runs.

“We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which costed us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead. In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened,” said Team’s skipper Hardik Pandya in the postmatch ceremony.