How Varun Chakravarthy changed his career – Firstpost

Varun Chakravarthy made his India debut in 2021, played six matches and then went missing for three years. There were many rumors about his absence but the 33-year-old mystery spinner from Tamil Nadu is back in Team India. His return has been quite successful as he has picked up 13 wickets in five matches since his return against Bangladesh in October.

On Sunday, he picked his first five-wicket haul as India suffered a narrow three-wicket defeat against South Africa in the second T20I.

Statistics | Varun Chakravarthy achieves a first; South Africa ends India’s winning streak

Reflecting on his outstanding form after the game, Varun Chakravarthy said that the intense domestic stress and role clarity imparted to him by new head coach Gautam Gambhir helped him regain his lost form.

“Definitely the last three years have been a bit tough,” Chakravarthy said. “The only thing I could do was play a lot of cricket. And I started playing a lot in the national league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better. And that helped me.”

Gambhir’s advice helps Varun

Chakravarthy was part of the IPL-winning Kolkata Knight Riders team this year under Gambhir, who recently took over as coach of the Indian team.

“Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he (Gambhir) was the coach of the team. And definitely we talked a lot and he gave me a lot of clarity about the role.

“He told me even if you score 30-40 runs, it doesn’t matter. You just have to be careful about picking wickets. So that’s your role on the team. And yes, the clarity they provided definitely helped me.”

Chakravarthy’s game-changing spell took South Africa to 66 for 6 while chasing a modest target of 125, but a difficult partnership between Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) ensured the hosts managed 19 overs, India’s 11-match win ended streak.

“During the innings break, Surya (captain Suryakumar Yadav) came and told us not to think about the result and just give it our all. And that’s exactly what we tried to do. We did our best and could have done it.

“Of course the mindset has to be aggressive when the score is low. You have to pick wickets and then we can win the game. That has to be my approach in the next two games, also because it will be a game of life and death for us,” he said.

“Hopefully I can do well in the coming games”

The spinner added that the performance against a team as strong as South Africa would serve as a confidence boost for the remaining matches.

“When we came to South Africa we definitely knew it would be a challenging tour because the Proteas are one of the best teams at the moment and have a strong batting line-up.

“Doing well against them definitely gives me the motivation to achieve more, and I can definitely do that. Hopefully I can do well in the coming games.”

India will face South Africa in the third and final T20I on Wednesday and Friday in Centurion and Johannesburg respectively.

With agency inputs