IPL 2018 Auctions: 10 things to know about Mumbai Indians' new recruit Rahul Chahar

It was in February 2017 that Rising Pune Supergiant bought a 17-year-old leg-spinner from Rajasthan and his name was Rahul Chahar. Nine years before he was hired by RPS, his brother Deepak Chahar (a fast bowler) had made a name for himself with a memorable spell of 8/10 against Hyderabad playing for Rajasthan.

However, it was in April 2017, he dismissed the likes of Hashim Amla and Brendon McCullum and impressed a few with his leg-spin. But, he played only 3 games in last season’s IPL. And he went onto to admit that he needed to work on his consistency.

Thus, when he went to England with the Under-19 team, he impressed a lot of people as he took 10 wickets in 4 Youth ODIs. He also played in the Youth Test match and took a couple of wickets and contributed decently (25 and 17) with the baton seamer-friendly pitches.

However, there was a major setback when he was not selected for the Under-19 World Cup and he expressed his disappointment as he said “only the selectors can tell” when asked about his non-selection.

Later, he went onto to perform in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as well. He picked up 6 wickets in 4 games.

And when his name came, he was likely to attract a few bids as quite a few teams needed spinners in their squads. And it was Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals who were involved in a bidding war for the 18-year old leggie. And eventually, it was Mumbai who won the bid and bought Rahul Chahar for a staggering 1.9 crore (19 times of his base price).

Here are 10 facts about the new 18-year-old leggie.

#1 Born in Bharatpur, Rahul Chahar took up the game mainly because of his brother Deepak Chahar. He was about seven years old when his brother made a dream debut picking up 8/10. He used to bowl fast like his brother Deepak and he took up leg-spin only after his brother suggested him that his leg-spinners were better.

#2 Rahul admitted that he stopped going to school once he took up cricket seriously. He credits his tauji (father’s elder brother) who is his coach and his brother for his growth as a cricketer.

#3 As a 14-year-old he started his cricket career with the Dholpur districts. It was there that he constantly evolved and got the backing of his coach Somendra Tiwari (who is rated highly by Rahul) at the district.

#4 It was in November 2016 that he made his first-class debut for Rajasthan. He picked up 2 wickets in the game. However, that was the only first-class game that the leggie has played.

#5 In February 2017, Rahul made his List A debut, but was expensive on debut (1/48 in 5 overs). But he subsequently improved and has taken 8 wickets in 6 List A games at an economy of 4.69.

#6 He was scalped by Rising Pune Supergiant at his base price during the 2017 IPL auctions. He played three games and took 2 wickets at an economy of 8.29.

#7 After getting an experience at a stage as big as the IPL, Rahul Chahar was keen on improving his accuracy and wanted to evolve. He then travelled with the Under-19 team in England. He performed very well as he took 10 wickets in 4 Youth ODIs at a superb average of 15.2.

#8 In October last year (2017), BCCI mysteriously named Rahul’s brother Deepak Chahar in the Board President XI’s squad that was to play against New Zealand. However, the Board later revealed that they had made a mistake and Rahul was consequently added to the Board President XI squad. However, he didn’t play in any of the two games.

#9 Rahul Chahar was constantly in touch with South African leggie Imran Tahir and received important tips from his RPS teammate when he went to England. He also praised MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane and termed them as “good humans first”.

#10 He was mysteriously left out of the Prithvi-Shaw led an Under-19 team that went to New Zealand to play the World Cup. However, he served a very good notice to the selectors with a strong show in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.