Yuzvendra Chahal says he spent 26 days in rehab during battle with alcohol addiction

India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal said on former India cricketer Aakash Chopra's Baith & Bol podcast on October 16, 2026 that he battled alcohol addiction and spent 26 days in a rehabilitation centre, and he also described experiencing anxiety attacks tied to personal upheaval. He said the end of his marriage and public scrutiny of his private life worsened his mental state and prompted him to seek professional help.

Chahal married Dhanashree Verma in December 2020, the couple began living separately in June 2022 and were granted a divorce by mutual consent by the Bandra Family Court in Mumbai in March 2025. He traced his drinking to the early years of the Indian Premier League, recalling that partying was common among young players when the IPL began in 2011. "In the beginning, we used to do it at parties. We were young blood. When the IPL first happened in 2011, we partied heavily for three years," he said.

Chahal detailed his stay in a rehabilitation centre and the changes it brought. "I went to a rehab centre where I stayed for 26 days. Now, I know how to handle drinking, what to do, how things work. That made a huge difference for me. Even in my personal life, I started understanding things much more maturely. My emotions have toned down a bit. I mean, the emotions are still there. But now it's not like they spill out over every little thing. I can handle it better," Chahal said.

The leg-spinner said giving up alcohol helped him physically and mentally and allowed him to concentrate more on training. He acknowledged that while his on-field performances had not suffered significantly, his personal life had been damaged by his drinking. "My cricket wasn't affected that much, but my personal life suffered a lot from it. So then I decided, let's leave this behind. Now I'm happy. I enjoy life, have fun, go out, go go-karting, play golf. I'm in a much better space now," he said.

Chahal said advice from former South Africa captain AB de Villiers and a moment of clarity led him to reassess his priorities. "When it went overboard, my mental state wasn't great at the time, this was after my divorce. So I crossed that line. Then one day it hit me. If I keep doing this, the thing I love most, the reason I reached where I am today, my cricket, will never survive," Chahal said.

He described experiencing panic attacks during the period of public scrutiny and how that affected his availability for white-ball cricket that year. "Anxiety is like your heart starts beating really fast from the inside. My face used to shrink during a panic attack. I couldn't even speak. Sometimes when it happened, my lips would get so tight and pulled to one side that you could easily figure out something was wrong with me," he said. "When things started to be said about my personal life, it felt bad. It also had an effect on my cricket. I had to take a break that year. I played two games with white ball that year, then didn't play T20s because my mindset was not right. It led to anxiety among other things," Chahal said.

Chahal said he decided to stop dwelling on online commentary and to focus on a fresh start. "When you are a public figure you basically give everyone an invitation to comment on your personal life," he said. "People on social media will keep on talking, you can't shut them up. Let's start fresh."

Chahal, who recently retired from first-class cricket, remains the leading wicket-taker in IPL history with 233 wickets and has 217 wickets across 72 ODIs and 80 T20Is for India. He has not played for India since August 2023 and was part of the T20 World Cup squad in 2024 but did not get any game time.