Mumbai Indians (MI) spinner Piyush Chawla is hopeful of extending his playing career in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after his exploits in the ongoing edition. After going unsold during the IPL 2022 auction, Chawla was picked up by MI ahead of IPL 2023. He picked up 22 wickets last season, and has 10 is as many games this term. Chawla’s form has been one of the positives for MI this season, with the five-time champions already out of the playoffs race. However, it os highly unlikely that MI will retain him going into the IPL 2025 mega auction.
On being was asked if the fans will get to see him playing next season, Chawla came up with a cheeky reply, leaving the journalists in splits.
“You tell me, if I should be playing with the way I’m bowling? If you have given your permission, of course I will see you somewhere next time,” Chawla said during the post-match press conference.
Chawla has played 191 matches in the IPL for four different franchises including Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and MI.
The 35-year-old surpassed Dwayne Bravo earlier this season to become the second all-time leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
He has picked up 189 wickets and was part of the KKR team which won the IPL in 2014.
Chawla picked two wickets on Saturday but MI went down fighting against KKR in a rain-hit game at the Eden Gardens.
Speaking on the defeat, Chawla suggested MI failed to gather momentum, while also praising KKR spinnners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine for turning the tide.
“T20 is about momentum, and we didn’t get that momentum right from the beginning. Some days we bowled well, but our batting didn’t click, and sometimes our batters did well, but the bowlers ended up leaking runs,” he said
“As a unit, we have failed in a few games, and we have to accept that as a team. We have a brilliant lineup, but things didn’t fall into place. Today also, we started off brilliantly, but that spell of (Sunil) Narine and Varun (Chakravarthy) actually made the difference. You have to give credit to their bowlers,” Chawla added.
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