‘I couldn’t meet Shane Warne sir’ – Yuzvendra Chahal reflects on how fate prevented him from meeting Australian spin-wizard

Yuzi Chahal. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)

The untimely demise of the legendary Shane Warne in 2022 left the entire cricket fraternity stunned to the core. The 52-year-old was on a vacation in Thailand when he passed away due to natural causes in March, 2022. There was no doubt that Warne was one of the best cricketers to ever represent Australia. In his prime, the spinner was a force to be reckoned with, as he had the best of batters beaten.

Apart from his heroics with Australia, Warne means a lot to the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals as well. He led Royals to a brilliant title win back in 2008, in the inaugural season of the cash-rich event. Ever since then, Warne had been an integral part of the franchise, both on and off the field.

After his retirement, the former Australian used to often visit the franchise and give a piece of his mind to the Rajasthan players, and according to star Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, a similar event of Warne visiting the franchise was being planned before his untimely death.

Chahal recently came forward to reveal how fate prevented him from meeting the great Shane Warne. He revealed that the former Australian was supposed to visit the franchise for a week and even meet up with him. However, the visit never happened due to the legendary spinner’s demise.

“Definitely, something is missing. I couldn’t meet Shane Warne sir. I came to know later that a surprise was being planned for me wherein he was going to come for a week. Unfortunately, what happened… It took me two to three days to overcome that,” Yuzvendra Chahal said on Ranveer Allahbadia’s ‘The Ranveer Show’ podcast.

“I have been supporting Rajasthan from the start because of the legend Shane Warne. I used to always follow him. Till U-19, my action was like him. His poster where his tongue is out used to be in my room, so I used to support Rajasthan. In 2010, I was in their probable list. But at that time, there was a rule that if you are U-19, you can’t play IPL. That’s why I couldn’t be part of the team,” he added.