Yuzvendra Chahal on the Cusp of Historic T20I Record, Hardik Pandya Set to Surpass Jasprit Bumrah-R Ashwin's Tally

While the Indian team suffered a narrow 4-run defeat to West Indies in the T20I series opener, captain Hardik Pandya remains upbeat that a young look side will make ‘mistakes’ but they are willing to learn from those setbacks. Apart from eyeing revenge during the second T20I to make a comeback in the series, there’s an added motivation for two Indian players who are on the cusp of glory. Hardik and Yuzvendra Chahal are set to surpass huge personal milestones as they gear up for the second T20I which will be played at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

During the first T20I, Yuzvendra Chahal opened his spell in a stellar manner, dismissing both West Indies openers in his first over and even though he was not able to inflict further damage after that, courtesy of those two dismissals, Chahal’s wickets tally rose to 93 in T20 international fixtures.

The spin wizard is just 7 wickets away from going past the three-figure mark, a century of T20I wickets as he will look to add to the gap between himself and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is the second-highest wicket-taker for India after Chahal.

If Chahal can manage to pick up 7 wickets during the four remaining T20I games in the Caribbean, he will become the first Indian men’s player to go past 100 T20I wickets mark. Indian women’s cricket team all-rounder Deepti Sharma was the first from the nation to breach the three-figure mark. Chahal also has a chance to keep building his wickets tally as he looks to compete with Shakib Al Hasan who is the leading wicket-taker in the shortest format with 140 scalps.

New Zealand star pacer Tim Southee is second on the list with 134 wickets and Rashid Khan is next in line with 130 wickets under his name.

Furthermore, captain Hardik will look to cut down the gap between himself and Chahal and he has a chance to surpass the tally of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin in T20Is.

Pandya is currently fifth in the list with 70 wickets and he will hope to go past the likes of Bumrah (70 T20I wickets), and Ashwin (72 wickets in T20Is).