Shreyas Iyer's chat that sparked Chahal's turnaround in fortunes in IPL 2025: 'Don't need to be safe, I told him…'

Yuzvendra Chahal continues to go from strength to strength in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. After a slow start to the ongoing 18th edition of the T20 tournament, the Punjab Kings spinner has found his mojo and is making the ball talk. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the leg-spinner returned with two wickets as he scalped Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma. Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer has now revealed his chat with the spinner after Chahal got off to an underwhelming start in the tournament.

Chahal's performance in the first five matches left much to be desired as he bowled defensive lengths, looking to be economical in his spell. However, he came into his own against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, scalping four wickets, helping PBKS create history and defend the lowest total (111) in the history of the IPL.

The 34-year-old backed this performance with a spell of 2/11 in 3 overs against RCB, helping Punjab Kings restrict RCB to 95/9 in 14 overs. After the win against RCB, Shreyas Iyer revealed how he told Chahal to keep faith in his abilities and not be "safe" in his approach.

"Personally, I had a chat with Chahal. I told him you are a match-winner, and you need to get us wickets as much as possible. You don't need to be safe in your approach, and he has got the capability of bouncing back," Shreyas told the host broadcaster after Punjab's five-wicket win.

"That's what we appreciate of him as a leggie. Probably, he is the best bowler in the IPL so far," he added.

PBKS go to second spot in the points table

Punjab Kings are now at the second spot in the IPL standings courtesy of their five-wicket win against RCB in a rain-curtailed game. Nehal Wadhera played an unbeaten knock of 33 runs off 19 balls with the help of 3 fours and 3 sixes to help PBKS chase down 96 with five wickets in hand and 11 balls to spare. This was RCB's third consecutive loss at home in IPL 2025.

Earlier, PBKS captain Shreyas won the toss and opted to bowl first. RCB kept losing wickets at regular intervals and at one stage, the hosts were reeling at 42/7 in the ninth over. Tim David then played an unbeaten 50-run knock off 26 balls to help the franchise avoid disaster and post 95 runs on the board. However, in the end, it didn't prove to be enough. For PBKS, Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, Chahal and Harpreet Brar took two wickets each.

"I was making instinctive moves, and obviously, we were getting wickets. I didn't want the new batsman to come in and settle straightaway. Marco Jansen was able to extract little bit of bounce on this wicket. He was bowling lethal. He basically steadied the ship. And the rest of the bowlers they helped him. To be honest, we didn't know how the wicket was going to play and I personally feel the bowlers they adapted according to it," said Shreyas Iyer.

"When I had a chat with Arshdeep, he said, the hard length balls were very difficult to hit on this wicket because I didn't see a single six off a fats bowler hit down the ground. That was the chatter going around and they were fantastic in executing it," he added.

RCB and Punjab Kings will face each other again on Sunday, April 20, in New Chandigarh.