Rahul Chahar joins Surrey for final Championship match of the season
India legspinner steps in for contest against Hampshire at Utilita Bowl
ESPNcricinfo staff
22-Sep-2025 • 4 hrs ago
Rahul Chahar in action in the Ranji Trophy • Manoj Bookanakere/KSCA
Rahul Chahar, the India spinner, has joined Surrey for their season-ending fixture against Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl this week, as the club bids for their fourth County Championship title in a row.
Chahar, 26, was registered to play for Surrey at the start of September, in line with ECB regulations, but was not required to play in the club's home matches against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. That latter fixture ended in a thrilling 20-run loss that has handed Notts control of the title race going into the final week.
Chahar has regularly featured for Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy, and also made a one-off appearance in this season's IPL, as an impact substitute for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Overall, he has taken 87 wickets in 24 first-class matches at 26.12, with best match figures of 9 for 148.
He also played one ODI and six T20Is for India between 2019 and 2021, around the same time that he played a key role in Mumbai Indians' twin IPL titles in 2019 and 2020.
"I'm excited to join Surrey for this week's match," Chahar said. "I'm coming here to have an impact and help the team in their final match of the season."
His call-up comes after Surrey lost both of their current spinning options, Will Jacks and Cam Steel, to injury. Alec Stewart, the club's high-performance advisor, said: "Adding Rahul to the squad gives us another spin option at the Utilita Bowl.
"We always knew that we would be missing players for the final period of the season and try to plan accordingly given the potential surfaces and the opposition we're playing.
"We had originally earmarked for Sai Kishore to return for the latter stages of the season but he unfortunately has a finger injury resulting in an operation has meant he was unavailable."
Surrey trail Nottinghamshire by 14 points going into the final round of matches, meaning that they must win their fixture, and hope that Notts accrue fewer than 11 points in their own final match against Warwickshire at Trent Bridge.