India’s T20I specialist spinner Varun Chakaravarthy can’t quite get the fuss about being called mysterious; says he just bowls all deliveries with same grip and release point, making it difficult for batters to read
India’s Varun Chakravarthy during the match against Pakistan at the Asia Cup in Dubai last month. Pic/AFP
India’s T20I specialist spinner Varun Chakravarthy, 34, has a lot of mysterious deliveries up his sleeve, but interestingly, he refuses to call himself a mystery bowler.
“I have never called myself a mystery bowler. It’s the media that has called me that, and it’s fine. But, it’s just that I have the ability to bowl all the deliveries with the same grip and same release point. That is what is making others find it tough to pick me,” Chakravarthy said during a media interaction on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating awards at a city hotel on Tuesday.
India’s Varun Chakravarthy at a city hotel on Tuesday. Pic/Satej Shinde
‘Ball goes in three ways’
“The ball just goes three ways — left, right or straight. So, it just depends on me when I want to take it on the other side. It just depends on the sequence of balls. Am I going to bowl two leg spinners and one googly or two googlies and one leg spinner? So that’s the only thing I can change,” added Chakravarthy.
Interestingly, the Kolkata Knight Riders player revealed that he struggles to bowl to Indian batsmen, particularly Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, while he has no problems deceiving overseas batters. “The foreign batsmen, I’m less exposed to them and they’re also less exposed to me. But in the IPL, we bowl so much to the Indian batters that they know what is coming and they read us better. There are many Indian batsmen, from Virat, Rohit and many people, I find it tough to bowl to,” said Chakravarthy, who was India’s top wicket-taker (nine) along with pacer Mohammed Shami during Rohit Sharma & Co’s Champions Trophy triumph in Dubai last March, and claimed seven scalps when the Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian team won the T20 Asia Cup in Dubai recently.
Chakravarthy lavished praise on his spin bowling partner wrist spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, who emerged as the highest wicket-taker (17 scalps) at the recent T20 Asia Cup. “Kuldeep is definitely one of the most experienced bowlers right now in the pool of players that we have and he has done amazingly well. I bowl at speeds of 95 KMPH and he bowls around 85 KMPH, so we complement each other well. Also, he has more revs and more turn, while I have more speed and bounce, so till now it’s been working well for us. Hopefully, we can continue what we’ve been doing at the World Cup too,” said Chakravarthy, who has claimed 40 wickets in 24 T20Is.
Gambhir’s strong mindset
Finally, the star spinner doffed his hat to India head coach Gautam Gambhir for his strong personality. “I’ve worked with him [Gambhir] in the [2024] IPL and we won that IPL, so [he] is not new to me because I’ve been around him. One thing that I can say about him is that he brings a Spartan mentality [extreme self-discipline, mental and physical toughness, simplicity, and a focus on duty and sacrifice to achieve a goal] to the team, where there is no option of losing. You just have to bring your best and give everything on the ground and later on, whatever happens, happens. When he’s around, there’s no scope for mediocrity,” Chakravarthy signed off.
40
No. of wickets claimed by Varun Chakravarthy in 24 T20Is
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