India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was delighted after Men in Blue registered a 44-run win against New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 on Sunday.
Chakravarthy was added to the team’s playing XI in place of Harshit Rana and he was able to grab his opportunity with both hands. India posted a fighting total of 249 runs on the board on a difficult pitch and Chakravarthy made life hard for the Kiwis as he got help from the surface.
The 33-year-old returned with impressive figures of 5-42 in his quota of 10 overs and accounted for Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell, and Matt Henry. Chakravarthy admitted he was a bit nervous as he doesn’t have a lot of ODI experience but wanted to bowl in the right areas to reap his rewards.
He said in the post-match presentation after bagging the Player of the Match award, “First of all I did feel nervous in the initial stages. I have not played many matches for India in the ODI format but as the game went on I felt better. Virat, Rohit, Shreyas, and Hardik were talking to me and that helped.”
Asked when he came to know he was playing this game, he said, “I found out last night. I was definitely expecting to play for the country but on the other side I was nervous. It was not a rank turner, but if you bowled in the right places it was giving help. The way Kuldeep, Jaddu and Axar bowled, even the pace bowlers, it was a total team effort.”
Chakravarthy’s performance will definitely cause a selection headache for the team when Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma get together to pick the final XI for the semifinal clash.
India will take on Australia in the first semifinal at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Tuesday.
