"Kartikeya looks really good"- Piyush Chawla opens up on MI's spinners for IPL 2023

Veteran Indian leg-spinner and World Cup winner Piyush Chawla will be playing for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2023 season. Chawla's experience will come in handy for some of the youngsters present in the MI squad, especially in the spin department.

Kumar Kartikeya and Hrithik Shokeen were impressive for MI last season. They have also added wrist-spinner Raghav Goyal to their ranks, some not many have heard of. However, Chawla has played with these players in the DY Patil T20 League and has an idea of how good they are,

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda on the sidelines of the JioCinema CricStream showcase, here's what Piyush Chawla had to say about working with MI's spinners:

"I have seen all of them (Kartikeya, Hrithik & Raghav) in the DY Patil tournament that we are playing. To be honest, Kartikeya looks really good, he has proved himself in the Ranji Trophy over the past season as well as this one. Raghav is a bit inexperienced and will only get better as he plays more and more."

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Piyush Chawla on lack of wrist-spinners

Almost every team who didn't have a wrist spinner among their retentions was scrambling to get one during the IPL 2023 auction. Chawla feels this has a lot to do with the lack of wrist spinners in domestic cricket.

Piyush Chawla also spoke about how youngsters these days want to bowl quick and why not many think about becoming a wrist spinner. He stated:

"Every team wants wrist-spinners in this format because while most bowlers go for runs, wrist-spinners are the attacking options that will give you a breakthrough. I think you aren't seeing many wrist spinners because there aren't many in domestic cricket. Youngsters want to probably bat or bowl quick and very few want to become wrist spinners."

After a poor IPL 2022 season where they finished in 10th place, MI will be determined to turn things around and make it to the playoffs this time.