'Humari galti thi' - Deepak Chahar's father reveals the cricketer's biggest regret

Deepak Chahar has become the toast of the nation due to his heroic knock of an unbeaten 69 in the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Coming in at number eight, the 28-year-old played brilliant innings under pressure in a run-chase of 276. That India had a potential bowling all-rounder at lower down the order in form of Chahar made fans and critics pleasantly surprised.

But right-handed lower-order batter has regrets for listing himself as an all-rounder and not as a bowler in the Indian Premier League (IPL) draft in 2018. He was brought for INR 80 lakhs, while his younger cousin Rahul Chahar was snapped up by Mumbai Indians (MI) for INR 1.9 crores. The family was happy for Rahul but felt if Deepak could have filled the form as a bowler, then he too could have gone for more in the auction.

Now, Lokander Chahar, Deepak’s father, spoke about the same to Times of India. “Humari galti thi (It was our fault). Deepak had filled the form as an all-rounder. The all-rounder category came late in the day. Rahul went as a bowler. Rahul’s name came early in the auction. Deepak came later. By the time Deepak’s name was called, teams had exhausted a lot of the money otherwise Deepak would have got more than Rs 2 crores. We had an idea that Rahul would draw big bids. It was not a surprise or a fluke that he went for so much,” he said.

Deepak Chahar knows he can’t be a one-dimensional cricketer: Lokander Chahar

It’s a well-known fact that Chahar is working on sharpening his skills in the batting department. He also scored few handy runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, in the 2018 season, just before the auctions were set to take place.

CSK skipper MS Dhoni noticed Deepak’s batting potential and promoted him up the order at number six in what turned out to be a tensed run-chase against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). He scored 39 off just 20 balls and showed his batting skills to CSK management.

Lokander feels Deepak always works on his batting while playing domestic matches for Rajasthan. He also added that it is a must to be multi-dimensional rather than being good at one skill set. “He was batting well for Rajasthan before he got injured after that tournament. But Deepak knows he can’t be a one-dimensional cricketer,” Lokander said.