Piyush Chawla IPL Profile

Piyush Chawla is an Indian cricketer who has played for the India national cricket team and currently plays for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. He was born on December 24, 1988, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. 

He has also played for the India under-19 team and the Central Zone. He is seen as a leg-spinning all-rounder in domestic cricket. He spent his childhood in Moradabad and learnt early essentials of cricket at Sonakpur Stadium under the guidance of his first coach Mr Badhruddeen, who has also coached Indian National cricketer Mohammad Shami, and young talents like Shiva Singh and Aryan Juyal. Piyush Chawla completed his schooling at Wilsonia College.

Chawla was a member of the Indian team that won both the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He first played for India U-19 against the England U-19 team in 2004–05, claiming 13 wickets from two Under-19 Tests at a bowling average of just above 12. 

He also played in the 2005–06 home series against Australia U-19, where he helped the hosts win the five-match limited overs series 4–1, taking eight wickets.  

In the 2005–06 Challenger Trophy, Chawla was selected to play for India B. Although he only bowled three of a possible ten overs in the first match of the series, conceding 21, he picked up two wickets in the next match against India A. As India B reached the final against the Seniors, he took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar with a googly in an effort described by Cricinfo as ""impressive"". 

He also dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to end with three for 49, but the Seniors still won by three wickets. Two weeks later, he made his first class debut for Central Zone against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy, and scored 60 in a 92-run eighth-wicket stand with Harvinder Singh. He also finished with match bowling figures of 27.2–3–100–6, admittedly only getting one of the top five batsman once. 

Chawla proved himself again when he took 4 wickets in 8 overs conceding only 8 runs in the U-19 World Cup final of 2006. He also made 25 runs. This resulted in his selection in the Indian Test squad for the first Test against England in Nagpur, in March 2006, and was selected for his debut in the second Test against England in Mohali, making him the second youngest Test debutant for India after Sachin Tendulkar. 

It was in this Test that he claimed his sole wicket of Andrew Flintoff. He played his first ODI with India on 12 May 2007, against Bangladesh. His debut was highly successful, with him taking 3 wickets. In the second ODI with Ireland, he was equally impressive with three wickets.

He returned to test after two years in April 2008 against South Africa, where he took 2-66 , but bowled only four wicketless overs in the second innings In 2009, Chawla signed for Sussex County Cricket Club for a month, as cover for Yasir Arafat who was with Pakistan. In his first County Championship match against Worcestershire, he took a total of 8 wickets in the match, and came in at number 9 in the first innings, and scored 102* from only 86 balls. 

Chawla was selected for 2010 ICC  T20 World Cup in the West Indies. He was also a member of the ICC Cricket World Cup-winning Indian squad in 2011. He returned to play his third Test, after 4 years, against England at Nagpur in December 2012, where the hosts had fielded four spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, debutant Ravindra Jadeja and Chawla. Chawla took 4/69 in the 1st innings. 

The leg-spinner returned to English county cricket in August 2013 when he joined Somerset as their overseas player for the last five weeks of the season. He was the leading wicket-taker for Gujarat in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy, with 32 dismissals in six matches. He was also the leading wicket-taker for Gujarat in the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy, with sixteen dismissals in eight matches.

Playing for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2023 season, Chawla emerged as their leading wicket-taker in the league stages to prove 'Old Is Gold'.