Yuzvendra Chahal recalled his second IPL season with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), when he played more than half of the campaign with a fractured finger to save his spot.

After a largely uneventful stint with Mumbai Indians, Chahal was snapped up by the Virat Kohli-led side in the 2014 IPL auction. After impressing in his first season with 12 wickets in 14 matches, Chahal didn’t want to give the management a reason to drop him.

So despite sustaining a fractured finger in his second season, he played on, and ended up with 23 wickets, the third-highest on the charts.

#OnThisDay in 2016, @yuzi_chahal made his India debut. He’s the only Indian bowler to take a six-wicket haul in both ODIs and T20Is.

How do you rate his 🇮🇳 India career so far?pic.twitter.com/wssNoPnEaQ

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) June 11, 2020

“I picked 23 wickets in the 2015 season,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I had fractured my finger in the fifth match that season, but didn’t tell anyone. I spoke to my physio who asked if I could continue playing. Though I refused to get an X-ray, as that would have kept me out of the team, I asked the physio to give a one-match break and so I didn’t play in the next match, against Delhi [Daredevils].

“We were then scheduled to play against Rajasthan [Royals] in Bangalore, but it got washed out so I got a week’s rest. But I continued taking two-three painkillers every match for the fractured finger and ultimately finished as the third-highest wicket-taker that season.

“So now I know that if I have another fracture, I can take lessons from 2015. That episode made me mentally strong, because I had got a chance after long, and didn’t want to give that away to anyone else. I already had 10 wickets in the first five matches and my season was going well, so I didn’t want to let my team down too. I felt that I could take the pain so I played the remaining 8-10 matches with a fractured finger.”