Yuzvendra Chahal says MS Dhoni did half the work for India’s wrist-spin pair. On Aakash Chopra’s Baith & Bol podcast, released on 15 October, Chahal said Dhoni’s reading of the game from behind the stumps made his and Kuldeep Yadav’s job about 50% easier.
“50% mera or Kuldeep ka kaam asaan hi hojaata tha, kyunki ek toh wo piche se dekh rahe ki wicket kaisa chl rha hai with experience, piche se bol rahe ki stump pe hi rakhna zyada krne ki zarurat nahi hai, waise hi out ho jaate the batters.”
“Our job became 50% easier, because he read the pitch from behind with his experience and kept telling us to just bowl at the stumps. Nothing more was needed. Batters got out anyway.”
Yuzvendra Chahal, Baith & Bol with Aakash Chopra, 15 October 2026
His clearest example came at Centurion in February 2018. Dhoni told him to keep the ball on the stumps and vary his pace. When JP Duminy shaped to sweep, Chahal slowed the ball down and trapped him LBW on the way to 5/22.
The 50% figure sounds like a compliment. It is really a description of how the work was split, and why that split mattered so much to wrist spinners.
“Dhoni did 50% of our job.”
Aakash Chopra, X post sharing the episode clip, 15 October 2026
Dhoni did 50% of our job—Yuzi Chahal
Lava presents Baith & Bol is streaming on YouTube, Facebook and Spotify.
#aakashvani #Baithandbol #yuzichahal #Collab #Dhoni https://t.co/vqVEciPCYG— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 15, 2026
Insider Read
A wrist spinner in the middle overs carries two jobs. One is the delivery: grip, wrist, release, the shape of the ball. The other is the plan: where the field sits, what the batter is setting up, which ball comes next, all decided between deliveries while the batter is already working you out.
Dhoni took the second job, and Kuldeep has confirmed it: he only had to bowl while Dhoni ran the field and the ideas. So “just bowl at the stumps” was never the absence of a plan. It was the plan, made by the man who sees the batter’s feet move first, and without him a young spinner has to think and bowl in the same few seconds, with the doubt showing up in his length.
What Changed for Kul-Cha After Dhoni Left
The numbers back Chahal. Bowling together in ODIs, Kuldeep and Chahal took 65 wickets at an average of 22.73, and at Centurion they shared eight wickets as South Africa folded for 118 and India won by nine wickets.
| With Dhoni keeping | After Dhoni | |
|---|---|---|
| Kul-Cha together in ODIs | 65 wickets at 22.73 | Did not play together for two years |
| Kuldeep’s ODI wickets | 45 in 2018 | 8 in 9 matches, 2020 to 2021 |
Dhoni’s last India match was the 2019 World Cup semi-final. He was not the only reason the pair split. England took them for 160 runs and one wicket at Edgbaston in that tournament, and Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round value squeezed one wrist spinner out.
Kuldeep was hit hardest, and in 2021 he said he missed Dhoni’s guidance from behind the wicket. Chahal now says it more gently: the exit made a difference, but Dhoni had already made them mature enough to know what to do.
Chahal has not played for India since August 2023. He is still taking wickets, with 15 in this season’s One Day Cup for Northamptonshire.
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