AB de Villiers reserved rich praise for Rashid Khan in an interview with Robin Uthappa for JioCinema. “Tough to pick at night. I could hit him for three sixes and he’d try and get me out the next ball. Those are the guys I always found difficult to face and had a lot of respect for.” Kartik Chadha, the Ludhiana Lions leg-spinner sitting atop the wickets table in Sher-e-Punjab T20 League, does not possess the maniac arm speed of the Afghan wizard but does share quite a few attributes with the best in the business.
Accurate leggies are a rare commodity in cricket because the art itself is tough to master. They must cock, twist, and snap their entire wrist at the point of release while also pivoting strongly to ensure revolutions and torque. Adding a googly or slider to the repertoire requires wholesale changes in the hand orientation, with the necessity of body coordination stride after stride rendering discipline a massive challenge. Kartik’s pitch map from the humdinger against Fazilka Falcons features all but one delivery outside of the 4-6m zone, a level of landing proficiency that has bolted Rashid to 730 wickets in the format and six title-winning campaigns across the globe.
Much like the virtuoso, Kartik boasts of a googly primed to leave leg-spinners green with envy. His impact on the proceedings also rivals that of Rashid, considering the four-wicket haul which included the prized scalp of Shubman Gill. Playing his first game of the tournament, the megastar had the crowd at IS Bindra Stadium in raptures. While Arshdeep Singh was tucked to the backward square leg fence with elan, a signature pull off the frontfoot beat a despairing dive in the same region. Even as wickets tumbled around him, the presence of India’s brightest young talent at the crease extended an aura to the air in Mohali. At the opposite end was Sunrisers Hyderabad fame Sanvir Singh, who took home the fattest paycheque at the Sher-e-Punjab auction table. All the signs hinted towards consolidation in the middle phase, yet Kartik had other ideas.
He conceded a mere two runs in his opening burst and went on to claim the prince in his next. Having accessed the boundary square on the leg-side against Jassinder Singh, a strange introduction into the attack given the twin strikes of Madhav Pathania, Gill fancied a slog sweep off Kartik only for the slight turn to produce an inside edge. A pindrop silence at the venue told the story of an audience wanting more of their demigod, alas Kartik’s guile meant an appetizer worth 40 off 21 was all they had to contend with. The degree of turn would increase manifold from this point onwards as Kartik’s tight grouping kept the stumps in play throughout. Pranshu Pratap lost his poles to the wrong ‘un before another one arrived with Aarush Latta’s name engraved on it, with Salil Arora latching onto the opportunity to showcase his wicketkeeping skills in spite of the right-hander’s blinding forward press.
The pairing of Kartik and Salil wasn’t done for the day just yet. A keeper-bat lumbering to an unattractive 25 wasn’t on the weekend bingo card, so Eish Rao’s vigil was terminated for the sake of the spectators. A spinner marching into the unplayable territory is an occurrence as scarce as hen’s teeth in T20 cricket, but the fact that nine runs came off his full quota buries reservations, if any, with respect to conferring the tag. In the grander scheme of things as well, Kartik has been an economical leg-spinner, the oxymoron in cricketing parlance notwithstanding. He’s conceded 5.47 runs per over in five innings and averages 10.4. To put things in perspective, Dhruvkumar Maisuria from Botswana flaunts the exact same average down to the decimal, putting him on top of the list featuring best T20 career bowling averages.
If Kartik has aspirations of retaining the crown he’ll have to ward off some stiff competition from Tejpreet Singh, a brave bowler of his ilk representing Mohali Kings. His trajectory is loopier as compared to Kartik, and that remains the case even if the ball travels every now and then. Fourth on the leaderboard, Tejpreet’s top effort transpired versus Amritsar Soormas – 3/38 in a fixture that tallied 520 runs. A member of Mumbai Indians, Raghu Sharma is creeping up the chart too, his leg-spin yielding seven wickets in six outings. However, languishing at the bottom of the table, Fazilka Falcons would expect Raghu to amp up the productivity quotient since sporting surfaces have brought Sher-e-Punjab on an even keel.
Kartik Chadda, BEST BOWLER OF THE MATCH! 🏆🔥
A fiery spell, big wickets, and a performance that made the difference. 💥
Well deserved, Kartik! 👏#LudhianaLions #KartikChadda #BestBowler #LionsRoar #Sherepunjableague pic.twitter.com/JrfyVUbQ89— Ludhiana Lions (@Ludhiana_Lions) September 7, 2026
Spinners capable of varying their pace effectively also stand to benefit from the dew factor, which creates a layer of moisture on the track in evening fixtures, thereby assisting zip to consign batters lbw and bowled candidates. Known for its dozen low-lying floodlights, the ground inaugurated in 1993 sucks lungfuls of cool air due to its laterally spread construction. Sure, gripping the ball can be a task once the shadows lengthen in the outskirts of Chandigarh, albeit Kartik’s returns allude to the significance of the towel tucked into his trousers.
A generous helping of spin was applied to the second half of the clash, with part-timer Vihaan Malhotra stacking five dots in a row to induce an ill-fated jailbreak shot from Yuvi Goyal. Sanvir Singh got a couple of chances to redeem himself after he hurt his head in the field attempting a diving catch. He made amends with the hunger of a famished lion as Vihaan struck again to thwart a fellow multi-dimensional gun, Arjun Rajput. The equation read 41 off 18 at that juncture and Pathania, reprieved at mid-wicket, was proving a thorn in the defenders’ flesh. Much to their relief, seamer Garv Kumar waded his team through the most nerve-wracking stage of the contest. In pursuit of 171, the margin of defeat was a solitary run, the cliffhanger welcomed with open arms by an assemblage growing weary of monotonal runfests.
