Indian team’s veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla made his international debut at the age of 17. Piyush Chawla’s performance has always been very good in international cricket. He recently made a big revelation about bowling against Kevin Pietersen in his Test debut match played in 2006 and also told how the former English batsman gave him a welcome message.

In 2006, a three-match Test series was played between India and England. Piyush Chawla made his debut in the second match of this Test series. After Sachin Tendulkar, Piyush Chawla was the second youngest player from India to make his Test debut. His performance in domestic cricket has always been very good and this is the reason why this player entered international cricket at the age of 17.

He bowled a maiden over in his international Test debut. However, after this he had to face Kevin Pietersen. Kevin Pietersen hit a four and a six in Piyush Chawla’s second over. Not only this, in England’s first innings, Kevin Pietersen did not spare Piyush Chawla at all and the leg spinner gave 45 runs in 9 overs without taking any wicket.

Senior players supported me: Piyush Chawla

Piyush Chawla said on the 2 Sloggers podcast, ‘In my first Test match, Kevin Pietersen scored runs against me in every corner of the field. And he told me that whether it is Shane Warne or any 17-year-old kid, I bat like this. This experience was like welcome to international cricket. I used to take almost 5 wicket haul in every second match of domestic cricket. I used to think that things are very easy but when I played my first Test, I understood that international cricket is very difficult.’

Even though Piyush Chawla failed to bowl well in the first innings, he made a good comeback in the second innings and took the important wicket of Andrew Flintoff. He took one wicket for 8 runs in the second innings.

Piyush Chawla further said, ‘All the players of the Indian team supported me a lot. Sachin paaji came, Veeru bhai also talked to me in his own way and then Yuvi paaji and Mahi bhai also supported me. I cannot say at all that they were my friends because all of them were very senior to me.’