Varun Chakravarthy’s journey from a late domestic debutant to India’s most lethal T20 weapon is a tale of persistence and evolution. After fading from the national scene following a modest start, the Tamil Nadu spinner engineered a comeback through consistent IPL performances with Kolkata Knight Riders
Varun Chakravarthy against Namibia on Thursday. PIC/GETTY IMAGES
Varun Chakravarthy didn’t play his first senior match for Tamil Nadu until September 2018, when he was 27. His first outing for India came just before he turned 30 and a storied cricketing career seemed to have passed him by when, after taking a mere two wickets in his first six T20Is, he was relegated to the wilderness for nearly three years.
A bushel of wickets, primarily alongside Sunil Narine for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, catalysed Chakravarthy’s India comeback in October 2024 and the architect from Tamil Nadu hasn’t looked back. In the last 15-and-a-half months, Varun has supplanted Jasprit Bumrah as the country’s most potent T20 weapon with a staggering 61 wickets in 30 innings, repeatedly reaffirming his class and quality.
After a quiet start to his maiden T20 World Cup (1-24 vs USA), Chakravarthy bared his fangs on Thursday here. A wicket with his first delivery to pack off Louren Steenkamp was the appetiser; within 12 balls, he left Namibia’s chase of 210 in tatters, snaring 3-7 from two overs in his first spell.
Chakravarthy will be expected to have an equal, if not greater, say over the next three weeks when the pitches get more tired, but when dew is also expected to be more pronounced. Consciously refusing to use a wet ball as an excuse, Chakravarthy referenced the experience of operating similarly in the IPL as he acknowledged that he and his spinning colleagues had plenty of practice at bowling with a wet ball.
The reasons behind a bushel of IPL wickets that sparked an India comeback was the realisation that he had to keep adding new tricks. That meant instead of merely side-spin, he worked assiduously on over-spin while working out ways and means to be quicker through the air and get more zip off the surface.
“I have been working on a few things, but that has been my process all along. I always have some delivery coming up,” he said, prolonging the suspense. “It’s up to me. If I am courageous enough, I will try it in the next match.” Wait and watch then, as they say.
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