“I don’t care who is playing or who is not playing; my motive is to get fully fit and perform with the ball and bat 100 percent. If I do that, I will get my chances.”
Deepak Chahar is a right-handed batsman and bowler who plays for Chennai Super Kings for the Indian cricket team. He is also the first male cricketer in India who took a hat-trick in a 120I match and was recognised with the T20I Performance of the Year 2019. It was during the Ranji Trophy Debut that Deepak Chahar first rose to prominence, after taking 8 wickets for 10 runs.
Married to Jaya Bhardwaj, he first met his wife in an IPL match and decided to get married in Agra, his hometown.
Deepak’s initial journey as a cricketer was not a cakewalk, and he succumbed to several injuries and fitness issues. Eventually, he was snubbed by Greg Chappell, then director of the Rajasthan Cricket Academy, as a young fast bowler.
Today, Deepak is known for his swing and how he picks wickets, especially in the powerplay overs. In terms of his educational background, he completed his schooling at D. Goenka Public School in Agra, where he even used to train. It was Deepak’s father, Lokendrasingh, who first instilled the love for cricket as a way of making him more disciplined.
Some of Deepak’s Wins
Apart from being the first Indian male cricketer to take a hat-trick in T20 International, some of Deepak Chahar’s other accomplishments include holding the record for the best bowling figures in T20Is and taking 6 wickets for 7 runs against Bangladesh in 2019. He was also given the T20I Performance of the Year award by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2020. Other wins include being a part of the Indian squad that won the 2018 Asia Cup.
Deepak was also the lead bowler in Rising Pune Supergiant before he joined Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In the 2025 IPL season, he was picked by the Mumbai Indians (MI).
Entrepreneurship
Apart from cricket, Deepak is also into entrepreneurship and co-founded 2 ventures with his wife, Jaya, which focus on fantasy cricket and cricketing equipment. The Trade Fantasy Game, under JCDC, has a unique sex-player format, which is not very conventional in the industry, having a format of 11. The app also focuses a lot on bringing in more innovative game features. Launched in 2023, TFG has over 30,000 players on a daily basis. By the IPL season, they look forward to crossing 3 lakh players.
With a plan to build a complete sports brand, Deepak is also the founder of D-NINE, established under LCDC Athletics Pvt. Ltd., that focuses on providing good quality cricket equipment, shoes and health supplements at affordable rates. In 2024, within six months, D-NINE had sales of 1.2 crore and partnerships with 30 distributors. So far, the two ventures have been doing quite well, and they are currently not looking for any external investments.
