Chahal Has 33 English Wickets and Bowled Stokes. India Haven't Called in Three Years.

Somewhere in Northampton, Yuzvendra Chahal is having the English summer of his life. Thirty-three wickets across the County Championship and One-Day Cup. The best economy rate among the top ten bowlers in the One-Day Cup. A delivery to Ben Stokes that went viral in countries where county cricket normally gets less screen time than local council meetings.

And yet, when the Indian cricket team flies out to play the West Indies in ODIs starting September 27, there is every chance Chahal will be watching from the other side of the world — just as he has for the last 1,133 days and counting since his last appearance in India colours.

August 2023 was the last time Chahal pulled on a blue jersey for an international match. Since then: nothing. No recall. No standby. Not even a whispered 'we're monitoring his progress.' Just silence — punctuated by the relentless sound of Chahal taking wickets that nobody at the BCCI seems to be counting.

September 3, Northampton vs Durham in the County Championship. Ben Stokes — the most decorated English allrounder of his generation — settled in at the crease, looking to rebuild after early damage. Chahal came around the wicket, flighted one outside off, and the ball dipped, gripped, and ripped through the gate to flatten Stokes' off stump.

Stokes, who has faced every great spinner this century, leaned forward to block. By the time the ball pitched and turned, he was playing a different delivery entirely. It was the kind of ball that earns a permanent loop on cricket Instagram — and it did, going viral within hours across every cricket-following country on the planet.

Chahal finished that match with 9/120 — a five-wicket haul in the second innings to go with his four-for in the first. He bowled 41 overs in the match. He was the best bowler on the ground by a distance. Durham's batters, including Stokes, had no answers.

In the six months before that spell, Chahal had been quietly accumulating wickets in conditions that don't typically favour legspin. Since then, he's added more in the One-Day Cup. The runs keep happening on the other side of the world. India's selectors remain unmoved.

Ajit Agarkar's selection committee meets this week to pick India's squad for the three ODIs against the West Indies starting September 27. It will be the last selection meeting of Agarkar's tenure — his term expires in early October. And the circumstances around this particular squad selection are unusually messy.

Varun Chakravarthy is injured and will miss the remaining Afghanistan T20Is, though he's expected to travel to the Asian Games. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, and Washington Sundar are all headed to the Asian Games squad. Harsh Dubey and Shahbaz Ahmed are injured. That's a staggering chunk of India's spin-bowling allrounder depth gone in one sweep.

Which brings us to the Cricinfo report published hours ago: there is, reportedly, a 'temptation to reunite the old pairing of Kul-Cha.' Kuldeep Yadav, who just took a match-winning ten-for in the County Championship for Yorkshire, is already a near-certainty for the West Indies ODIs. The question is whether his old partner gets the call too.

Chahal's exile isn't about his bowling. It's about his batting — or rather, the complete absence of it. In a world where India insists on playing spin-bowling allrounders who can bat at No. 7 or 8, Chahal offers precisely zero with the bat. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar — all of them contribute runs. Chahal contributes googlies.

The irony is that India's ODI middle-overs bowling has suffered precisely because of this tradeoff. When Kul-Cha operated as a tandem, they were the most destructive spin pairing in white-ball cricket. Two wrist-spinners attacking from both ends, creating pressure loops that forced batters into mistakes. Replacing Chahal with a bat-first allrounder has added 15 runs of lower-order cushion and subtracted an entire dimension of wicket-taking threat.

The 2027 ODI World Cup will be played in South Africa — conditions that traditionally don't favour spin. India might take one frontline spinner in the playing XI. But in the squad? With a 2024 semi-final memory of being outspun by Afghanistan's wrist-spin duo in the group stage still fresh, ignoring the most proven Indian legspinner in English conditions feels like a risk the selectors may not want to take.

This is a defining week for Ajit Agarkar. His tenure as chief selector has been defined by bold calls — replacing Rohit Sharma as ODI captain, picking Tilak Varma ahead of Suryakumar Yadav, persisting with young pace options. Some have worked. Some have blown up spectacularly.

Recalling Chahal would be the boldest call of his final meeting. It would mean admitting that India's spin strategy in ODIs has been incomplete. It would mean acknowledging that a 36-year-old who was quietly put out to pasture still has more to offer than the alternatives. It would mean trusting performance over profile.

Thirty-three wickets in an English summer. The best economy rate in the One-Day Cup. A delivery to Ben Stokes that the cricketing world is still replaying. If that isn't enough to earn a phone call, then the selection process isn't watching the cricket. It's watching the politics.

Yuzvendra Chahal has been screaming into the void for 1,133 days. Agarkar has one meeting left. It's time to pick up the phone.