Prithvi Shaw's 'Bas Karo' Moment: India Veteran Shares Experience of Playing with Tendulkar and His Son, Vows Not to Retire Before Dhoni

In the same year, MI made another significant acquisition - Piyush Chawla, who had the honor of being Sachin Tendulkar's teammate 15 years earlier on his India debut. Fate would have it that Chawla was part of the MI camp when Arjun Tendulkar joined the team. Chawla made his India debut at just 17 years old, playing against England in Mohali. A year later, he was a member of the 2007 T20 World Cup-winning team, and four years after that, he lifted the 2011 World Cup on home soil. At 35 years old in the year 2024, Chawla is a two-time World Cup winner and continues to perform at a high level. While he has played his last match for India, Chawla is still going strong in the IPL.

Asked as to whether he will retire first on MS Dhoni, pat came Chawla's reply as he went on to narrate an incident with Prithvi Shaw which shows his zeal to carry on for another few years. "Mahi bhai. A while ago, Prithvi Shaw told me 'Bas karo yaar ab PC bhai'. I said, I've played with Sachin paaji, and now playing with his son. I am playing with you, and after playing with you son, I will retire," the veteran India spinner said on The Shubhankar Mishra show.

For someone who has been part of the IPL for as long as the tournament has existed, Chawla has represented as many as four franchises. From starting off at Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab), to becoming a two-time IPL winner with Kolkata Knight Riders, Chawla came aboard the MI ship, getting picked twice – once in 2021 and then in 2023. With MI spinners proving ineffective in IPL 2022, the franchise turned to Chawla the following year where he emerged as the team's leading wicket taker that season. As questions were asked, as the old adage goes, Chawla let his experience and bowling do the talking.

"With due respect to everyone, MI had good spinners but somewhere down the line, experience matters. If a pressure situation arises, the way an experienced campaigner will handle it, a youngster won't be able to. When we were 20-21, we used to bowl to escape punishment, now we do it to pick wickets. When people questioned, 'Why Piyush Chawla, and this that?', I said fine, let them talk. Then the same people started messaging me, posting on social media such as 'PC is back, PC 2.0," he added.