Picture Credit: IPL
It is the 11th anniversary of India's iconic ODI World Cup win in 2011. The Men in Blue had defeated Sri Lanka in the finals of the tournament on April 2, 2011 to lift the title. A member of that World Cup-winning India squad, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, was in the commentary box during the ongoing IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Chawla, who couldn't find a buyer for himself in the IPL Auction, is making his debut as a commentator with this game. However, when his fellow commentator Nikhil Chopra welcomed him to the panel and congratulated the leg-spinner for a wonderful career with 157 wickets from 165 matches, the 33-year-old did not seem too impressed.
He, in fact, said, that he will continue to add wickets to his IPL tally and is currently on a break. Co-commentator Irfan Pathan and Nikhil then wished him well for his future while continuing to talk about the match. Chawla was part of the Mumbai Indians squad in IPL 2022 and shared his thoughts on how their tank would be approaching this match.
Other than Chawla, there have been several new faces in the commentary box this IPL season with Dhawal Kulkarni also expressing his views on the game along with Suresh Raina. Both Kulkarni and Raina used to IPL as recently as last year. However, while Chawla has expressed his desire to make a comeback to the Playing XI, it is being reported that Raina might announce his retirement from all forms of the game pretty soon.
35-year-old Raina had a poor season with the bat last year and with him playing no domestic cricket at all, it was always going to be difficult to make a comeback. The southpaw had already retired from international cricket in 2020.