A former cricketer from India criticized a tweet in which he called MI star Piyush Chawla a “leggy man who does not play for his state”

Veteran spinner Piyush Chawla was at his peak in Game 16 of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday. Chawla took wickets for Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell and Lalit Yadav, inspiring MI to their first win of the season. Chawla, who has not played for India since December 2012, was bought by MI for 50 lakh during the IPL 2023 mini auction. He has taken four wickets in three matches so far.

While Chawla ran past DC’s batting squad, Makarand Waingankar, whose Twitter biography reads cricket Ph.D., sports journalist with over 50 years of experience and cricket management consultant, tweeted: “Delhi Capitals? No. Delhi is capitulating. Too many cricket brains have sat in the dugout, but in the middle their batsmen were clueless against a leggy who doesn’t even play for his state.”

However, his remark did not go down well with former Indian wicket player Partiv Patel, who commented on the tweet saying, “This long-legged two-time World Cup winner with 161 IPL wickets, his name is PUSH CHAULAH…and he really plays for GUJARAT like a professional player.”

This long-legged two-time World Cup winner with 161 IPL wickets, his name is PIYUSH CHAWLA… and he actually plays for GUJARAT as a professional player… https://t.co/2XAYEKGioc

— Partiv Patel (@parthiv9) April 12, 2023

Chawla, 34, was part of the Indian teams that won the inaugural ICC World T20 in 2007 and the ICC World Championship in 2011.

The last time ODI Chawla played was at the 2011 World Championship. He returned for a Test against England in 2012 but soon disappeared into the wilderness. Shortly after World T20 in Sri Lanka that year, Chawla lost his place in the shortest format as well.

(with PTI inputs)