Indian bowler Deepak Chahar missed the pivotal series India played against South Africa and Afghanistan due to personal challenges which he encountered ahead of the games. Chahar didn’t feature in India’s tour of South Africa and India’s three-match T20I series at home against Afghanistan thereafter, as his father suffered a brain stroke. 

After giving a miss to important outings ahead of the T20I World Cup 2024, Chahal is eying his participation in the T20I World Cup that will be played in West Indies and USA in June this year. Since India are not scheduled to play any bilateral series ahead of the T20I World Cup, Deepak Chahar has the upcoming IPL to display his prowess to consolidate his place. Speaking to PTI, Chahar talked about his absence from those outings. 

“For me, my father comes first. I am here only because of him. Whatever I have achieved is because of my father. If I am not there for him in those situations, then obviously, what kind of son I am?” Chahar said. 

“If the series was in India, then I would have surely tried to play. You can come to the hospital if you need within 4-5 hours. But obviously, (from) South Africa it takes 2-3 days to come back,” he said.

“It was an easy decision to be with my father. Any son would do that,” stated Chahar.

"I was with my father in the hospital for 25 days. He was admitted in Aligarh. We all had to stay there,” he said.

“I was only able to do some exercises. I was not able to do any cricketing activities. That’s why I was not ready for the Afghanistan series. I had not practised for a month or so.”

"After that I went to the NCA. I started my practice again and now I am fully fit. Everything is good. I trained really hard for the IPL and the World Cup,” Chahar noted.