'I am playing for my son' - Piyush Chawla opens up amid stellar season with MI

Mumbai Indians secured a terrific victory over Gujarat Titans on Friday at the Wankhede Stadium. The Paltans beat their Western rivals by 27 runs and now have gone to 3rd place in the table.

It was a mesmerizing Suryakumar Yadav (103* off 49 balls) knock which helped them to a mammoth total of 218. Despite Rashid Khan's brilliance, the Titans fell short of 27 runs. Despite all the focus on SKY and others, there was another payer who continued his consistent run.

Piyush Chawla was excellent yet again with the ball for Mumbai Indians on the night. The veteran leg-spinner picked up two wickets (2/36 in 4 overs) in his spell and gave his team crucial breakthroughs. Chawla knocked over the dangerous Vijay Shankar, and also picked up the wicket of Rahul Tewatia.

He has been having an outstanding season so far. The 34-year-old now has 19 wickets this season, sitting 3rd in the Purple Cap leaderboard. Chawla was picked up by Mumbai in the auction after remaining unsold last season, and has so far repaid every penny of the INR 50 lakh he is getting for the season.

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And after the match, the player said his son has been the biggest reason for his inspiring comeback.

"I am playing my son. He never saw me playing, he was too young when I was playing in my prime. But now he understands the game and knows what I am doing. He is still 6 but he understands. He is the reason I kept working hard," Chawla said in a post-match interaction on JioCinema.

Chawla also has 174 IPL wickets, and is only 12 wickets behind Yuzvendra Chahal, who is now the highest wicket-taker in IPL's history. Rashid Khan played a stellar knock in the match for a losing cause. The Afghan scored an unbeaten 79 off just 32 balls.

When asked if he also wants to bat higher up the order, Chawla gave a witty response, saying, "The bowlers are lucky that I am not getting to bat on this pitch."

He also revealed his son is one of his biggest critics and watches over the proceedings of the match with him on the same day via phone call.

"We both review about my performance after each game," Chawla added.

Chawla has represented India in 3 Tests, 7 T20Is and 25 ODIs and has 43 international wickets across all formats.