Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth showered praise on Varun Chakravarthy after India won the fourth T20I against Australia at the Gold Coast by 48 runs on Thursday. Chakravarthy returned with figures of 1-26 in his quota of four overs when India were defending a target of 168.
The mystery spinner accounted for dangerous Glenn Maxwell on the last ball of his spell. The Australian all-rounder tried to play a big shot against Chakravarthy but the spinner was one step ahead as he shortened his length after noticing that Maxwell was dancing down the track.
Chakravarthy has a solid record while bowling against Maxwell and continued his domination against the explosive batter.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “Glenn Maxwell shakes in his boots whenever Varun Chakaravarthy comes on to bowl. Varun picks up certain batters like a rabbit. Especially when he sees Maxwell, he gobbles him up like a piece of cake.”
Meanwhile, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav batted at number four after Shivam Dube was promoted to one down. Srikkanth expressed his displeasure that SKY once again changed his batting position.
“The T20 World Cup is around the corner. So he doesn’t have much time. He has to regain his form and get used to the No. 3 position. You cannot keep on shifting and rotating the order. There has to be a set order with the limited time before the World Cup. They escaped today and the trial and error philosophy is fine for now. But at some point there has to be a conclusion. Maybe from the South Africa series as it’s in India,” he said.
On the other hand, Washington Sundar was given the ball for the first time in the series and he returned with impressive figures of 3-3. Srikkanth questioned the team for under-bowling the off-spinner.
“What I don’t understand is he is playing as a spin-bowling all-rounder. He is a spinner who can bat and not a batter that bowls spin. He first came into the Indian side for his spin-bowling only with his opening spells for Pune in the IPL. That’s how Washington Sundar came into prominence,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
“Yes, he has scored a lot of runs and is basically an opening batter. But he’ll get his confidence only if he’s given the ball regularly. Last match he didn’t bowl at all and this match it was hardly an over. Through this plan, India are indirectly saying he’ll not be in the 11 for the T20 World Cup because Kuldeep Yadav will be back on Indian pitches. This feels like a signal to that.”
The fifth and final T20I of the series between Australia and India will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane, on Saturday.
