Yuzvendra Chahal – 10 facts you must know about Indian cricket team's rising leg-spinner

The 26-year-old bowled his heart out in the third match of the series where he picked six wickets for just 25 runs, guiding India to a series win against England.

New Delhi: While Yuzvendra Chahal has been one of the most successful bowlers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the last few seasons, the Haryana spinner hadn't been given too many opportunities by the selectors to prove his mettle at the big stage.

But after a low-profile series against Zimbabwe in 2016, when he was named for India's 15-man T20I squad for three-match series against England, Chahal grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

The 26-year-old bowled his heart out in the third match of the series where he picked six wickets for just 25 runs, guiding India to a series win.

Here are ten facts you must know about India's rising leg-spinner:

Yuzvendra Chahal hails from Haryana and he first made headlines when he claimed 34 wickets in the National Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy in 2009, ending the tournament as the leading wicket-taker.

He is also India's former under-12 national chess champion, after which he also represented India at the Asian Youth Championship in Kozhikode and went on to play at the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece. Lack of funds forced him to give up on chess.

Before being roped by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Chahal was initially signed by the Mumbai Indians in 2011.

Despite remaining on bench for the entire IPL season in 2011, he was included in their playing XI for the now defunct Champions League Twenty20. He made an impact in that tournament as he got to play in all the matches and ended up with figures of 3-0-9-2 as Mumbai lifted the title.

In the next two IPL seasons, he played just one match for Mumbai Indians in 2013.

His fortunes changed when he was bought by RCB at auction in 2014. He became Virat Kohli's go-to man from the first season and has picked 55 wickets in three seasons for the franchise.

It was his stupendous form for RCB that got the attention of the selectors who named him for India's tour to Zimbabwe in June 2016.

It was on this tour that Chahal made his ODI (Jun 11, 2016) and T20I debut (Jun 18, 2016).

He was recalled into India's T20I squad for the three-match T20I series against England.

In the final match of the series, Chahal demolished the English batting line-up with figures of 6/25 – which is the best bowling spell by an Indian bowler in T20 internationals.