Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra hailed Varun Chakaravarthy’s spell after India secured a 44-run win against New Zealand in the ongoing Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.
Chakravarthy bowled a match-winning spell of 5-42 while playing only his second ODI. The mystery spinner made the most of the favorable conditions and New Zealand batters had no answers to his guile and variations.
The 33-year-old accounted for Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, and Matt Henry. Chopra recalled that Chakravarthy didn’t have a great run in the 2021 T20 World Cup but he has been able to turn the tables in the last 12 months.
“It was a storm named Varun Chakaravarthy that blew them away. He trapped their guys one by one. It was absolutely incredible. Varun Chakaravarthy needs to be spoken about because this was the ground where he played the 2021 T20 World Cup. He got very few opportunities and then he was put in cold storage,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“He was considered not good enough. He was considered an IPL bowler and that he is not that good at the Indian level. The guy went back and put in a lot of hard work. In fact, he was also playing in the TNPL (Tamil Nadu Premier League). He even put an Instagram story – ‘I wish I had a better PR.’ He felt people don’t notice him because he didn’t have a good PR,” he observed.
Varun took 21 wickets for KKR in IPL 2024 and played a key role in the championship run. After an impressive tour to South Africa, Chakravarthy bagged 14 wickets in five T20Is at an average of less than 10 against England. Ergo, he was added to India’s Champions Trophy squad in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
“Then he just continued to practice and take wickets. He did extremely well in two IPL seasons, made Kolkata the champions, bowled the difficult overs, and then he was once again selected for India. Then he kept picking up five-wicket hauls. He thrashed South Africa in South Africa and England at home. His wicket tally in two successive series was the best in Indian T20 cricket history,” Chopra elaborated.
India will take on Australia in the first semifinal at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Tuesday.
