We had no plans to play Chahal, but…, says Virat Kohli

TIL Desk Sports/ India captain Virat Kohli was quite pleased that the concussion substitute rule worked out well for his side even though there were no plans to play Yuzvendra Chahal, who proved to be a match-winner after replacing Ravindra Jadeja in the first T20 International against Australia in Canberra.

Chahal turned out to be the perfect concussion substitute after an injured Jadeja did his part with the bat in India’s impressive 11-run victory. While Jadeja smashed an unbeaten 44 off 23 balls to propel India to 161 for 7, his head injury allowed India to unleash Chahal (3/25 in 4 overs) on an Australian side caught completely off-guard.

“There were no plans of having Yuzi (Chahal) in the game. Jaddu (Jadeja) got a knock on the side of the head and was a bit dizzy and still is,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation. “Concussion replacements are a strange thing, today it worked for us maybe another time he wouldn’t have found a like-for-like,” he added.