It could be said that the always committed and purely passionate Piyush Chawla played the Indian Premier League for almost the entirety of the tournament's timeline, besides, of course, the 2025 season, by which time he had already become a commentator and expert cricket analyst giving coverage and discerning views on the competition.

A cricketer who was seldom tardy to act and kept himself always busy for the entirety of the contest, the game in IPL wasn't over until the determined, bottle rocket of a spinner hadn't had his way with his exceptional high quality spin bowling.

Even as he commentates for the revered Sports broadcaster in India, Piyush Chawla's varying views, in situations where a batter fails to read the line of the ball or where a false shot is attempted when it so wasn't there to be hit, suggest his deep understanding about the art of cricket.

A long and checkered career

What one must also confess is that for a career that had long legs, playing as far and as recently as the 2024 season of the IPL, it's a pity that Piyush Chawla couldn't take his 200th wicket in the format, his career graph stopping at 192 wickets.

But not all careers, one must argue are for the glory of the self; many are extended to uphold the dignity and pride of their team. Piyush Chawla's career served a reminder of that facet of the gentleman's game.

Overall wicket tally

In all, the Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh born cricketer contested in no fewer than 192 IPL contests from which he took just about 200 wickets, it ought to be reminded again.

Where it stands at present, then the man of few words, which Chawla usually is, stands just one place shy the table topping position on the list of most successful spinners in the IPL.

That's a massive record.

A massive achievement.

With 221 wickets, Chahal leads the charts as on date with Chawla right behind the Indian great. As a matter of fact, in the list of spinners with most IPL wickets, Chawla, third on the list also trails Sunil Narine, who's essentially been a KKR night. Chawla and Narine are on the exact same number of wickets: 192.

But, here's a leap

Having said that, in order to understand just how far Piyush Chawla came in his IPL career in terms of wicket taking, it's important to reflect that he's ahead of the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Amit Mishra and even Dwayne Bravo where it comes to the bowlers with maximum wickets in the famed franchise competition.

How does Piyush Chawla's bowling avg stack up against the greats

In terms of his IPL bowling average, which is 26.6, Chawla with 192 games to his name, stands ahead of the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin - 221 games and an average of 30, Ravindra Jadeja - 254 games and an average of 30.5, as also Harbhajan Singh- 163 games and an average of 26.8.

These are three attractive talents and big match winners in the Indian Premier League.

Piyush Chawla's best IPL season as on date

Another thing that must be mentioned and truly worth remembering is that the most successful season for the noted spin talent came actually with the Mumbai Indians.

Back in 2023, when Piyush Chawla was nearing the edge of his career, having eventually walked into the IPL sunset a year later, he took 22 wickets for Mumbai playing just 16 games that year. What must be further noted here is that 22 of his 36 wickets with Mumbai came in that season alone.

However, in 2023, Piyush Chawla found himself fourth on the list of bowlers with most IPL wickets that season with Shami, winner of purple cap that year, on top. He would be followed by Mohit Sharma and Rashid Khan. Then came the Mumbai Indians' spinner, Chawla.

If that's not a great performance for someone who had, by then, already become an IPL veteran, then what could ever suffice?

The following is Piyush Chawla's wicket breakdown for each IPL franchise

2008-13 - PBKS - 84 wickets (Best bowling of 4 for 17)

2014-2019 - KKR - 66 wickets (Best bowling of 3 for 19)

2020 - CSK - 6 wickets (Best bowling of 2 for 33)

2021-2024 - MI - 36 wickets (Best bowling of 3 for 22)Dev Tyagi