Australian Tri-Series 2012 LIVE

India, Sri Lanka, Australia Commonwealth Bank Series

Piyush Chawla

Piyush Chawla (born 24 December 1988, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India) is an Indian cricketer who has played for the India U-19 team and the Central Zone. He first played for India U-19 against the England U-19 team in 2004-05, claiming 13 wickets from two Under-19 Tests at a bowling average of just above 12. He also played in the 2005-06 home series against Australia U-19, where they won the five-match limited overs series 4-1, taking eight wickets.

In the 2005-06 Challenger Trophy, Chawla was selected to play for India B. Although he only bowled three of a possible ten overs in the first match of the series, conceding 21, he picked up two wickets in the next match against India A, and as India B reached the final against the Seniors, he took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar - bowled with a googly - in an effort described by Cricinfo as "impressive"[1]. He also dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to end with three for 49, but the Seniors still won by three wickets. Two weeks later, he made his first class debut for Central Zone against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy, and scored 60 in a 92-run eighth-wicket stand with Harvinder Singh. He also finished with match bowling figures of 27.2-3-100-6, admittedly only getting one of the top five batsman once. He has been known by Kiran More since the age of 15 and at only 17 has potentially got a great cricketing future in front of him. He proved himself again when he took 4 wickets in 8 overs conceding only 8 runs in the U-19 World Cup final of 2006. He also made 25 (n.o.) runs.

This resulted in his selection in the Indian Test Squad for the 1st Test against England in Nagpur, in March 2006, and was selected for his debut in the 2nd Test against England in Mohali, making him the second youngest Test debutant for India after Sachin Tendulkar. It was in this Test that he claimed his sole wicket of Andrew Flintoff.

Piyush played his first ODI with India on 12th May 2007, against Bangladesh. His debut was highly successful, with him taking 3 wickets. In the second ODI with Ireland, he was equally impressive with three wickets.