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Veteran Indian spinner Piyush Chawla recently recalled an interaction with the late legendary Shane Warne that made a huge impact on his career. The iconic Australian leg-spinner, who died in 2022, helped several rising spinners in his home country as well as the rest of the world.
Chawla represented the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the first edition of the IPL in 2008 when he was just 19 years old. The T20 format was relatively new at that point in India, and much like others, the young leg-spinner was trying to understand T20 cricket. He had made his T20 debut for Uttar Pradesh in 2007, where he registered impressive figures of 3-23.
However, he struggled in the big leagues initially, conceding 46 runs in three overs across his first two matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Speaking on the 2 Sloggers podcast, Piyush Chawla said:
"Our first match was against CSK and they scored some 230-odd runs. I bowled one over and got smashed for 20 runs. Just got one over. I thought 'It's ok. What's done is done'. We reached Jaipur for the second match against Rajasthan Royals. We batted first and I scored some 24 runs off 11-12 balls. When I came to bowl, I conceded 30 in 2 overs. I went to my room and thought 'This T20 cricket is not my cup of tea.' I was 18 at that time and really worried." (31:52)
Following the drubbing, Kings XI Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh arranged for a meeting between RR captain and coach Shane Warne and Piyush Chawla.
"Yuvraj came up and he made me meet the legendary Shane Warne. I went to his room and started speaking. English, I wasn't able to speak much and the one with accent, couldn't understand much. But I understood whatever little I could. After 40 minutes, I left his room and I'm not kidding but I felt there is no bowler better than me. He said so many things to me and made me understand the little things about cricket," he added. (32:36)
Piyush Chawla further revealed that franchise head coach Tom Moody wanted to drop him after a set of disappointing outings but skipper Yuvraj Singh and other seniors managed to convince the coach to give the youngster another chance.
Piyush Chawla registered figures of 2-16 in the next match against the Mumbai Indians
Inspired by the motivational talk by Shane Warne, Chawla managed to repay the faith that the team had shown in him. The leg-spinner picked up two wickets while only conceding 16 runs in Kings XI Punjab's comprehensive win over the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Mohali.
Chawla did not turn back after that, going on to become one of the leading wicket-takers in IPL history, representing the national side, and winning silverware.
