Varun Chakravarthy’s fitness level, not his skill with the ball in hand, was first the biggest curiosity about him. The 31-year-old spinner, who only entered the professional ranks of cricket in his mid-20s, has a variety of deliveries in his repertoire, including the off-break, leg-break, googly, and carrom ball. However, due to his history of injuries, he frequently was unable to prepare himself to perform this wide variety.
Varun Chakravarthy, a bowler for the Kolkata Knight Riders, celebrates with his colleagues (PTI)
For instance, while undergoing rehabilitation for a long-standing shoulder ailment that limited his throwing abilities, he was chosen for India’s T20I squad to tour Australia in 2020. Finally, T Natarajan, a left-arm fast bowler, was brought in to replace him. He was chosen for a T20I series against England a few months later, but was once again unable to play due to a failed fitness test.
After the 2021 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), when he had an economy rate of 6.45 after 11 overs in three matches but failed to pick up a wicket, all of this may have contributed to the Indian selectors losing patience with the mystery spinner. I stumbled. Chakraborty had his poorest IPL season in 2022 for Kolkata Knight Riders following his six T20 matches for India. Only six wickets were taken at an economy rate of 8.51 in his 11 games for KKR. He was even benched for three games since the batsmen appeared to have seen all of his variations and extremely long length. In contrast to his greatest season in 2021, when he was among the top-10 wicket-takers with 18 wickets at an economy rate of 6.58 runs per over, his performance that year was noticeably poorer.
Varun, a seasoned architect, may have been cast off by many after the 2022 season, but he’s making a comeback this year. He has already claimed nine wickets in six games—three more than he did in the same period last year—at an economy rate of 7.52, stats that indicate he is KKR’s key bowler this year. The sole candidate for that position, Sunil Narine, has only claimed six wickets thus far and is more expensive with an economy rate of 8.43.
Their performance on Thursday at the Feroz Shah Kotla venue was noticeably different. Chakraborty recorded stats of 4-1-16-2 while Narine failed to pick up a wicket for 36 runs in four overs, which was expensive in a game with few runs scored. Although David Warner was leg-trapped after attempting a reverse sweep off a ball that was straight and a little bit fuller than he anticipated, Prithvi Shaw paid the price for cutting a ball that was too near to his body. What ought to have been a simple pursuit for Delhi turned out to be anything but.
Jason Roy, the opening batsman for KKR, said of his colleague on Thursday, “Varun demonstrated tonight why he is one of the top spinners in the IPL.” “He brought us closer than anyone to winning a game. He truly is a star. He has excellent bowling strategy and is quite shrewd. Fortunately, I haven’t had to play him often in the nets.”
Chakraborty struck out Warner after bowling five dot balls to Axar Patel in the over. In the 18th over of Delhi’s innings, Akshar continued to struggle against Chakraborty because he was unsure of which way the ball was going. Despite being India’s top hitter recently and the second-highest run scorer for Delhi this season, this is the case. Similarly disoriented, Lalit Yadav sprinted down the field in an effort to make contact with the ball, but Liton Das missed the stumping.
He has previously met numerous opponents. Several people have watched a lot of video,” Warner stated following the game. “It didn’t seem like many guys were picking on him, in my opinion. He was attempting to play off wicket and with his back foot. Seeking for the ball he is bowling is one of your duties as a batsman. He needs to work hard and return to the analyst if certain batsmen are not selecting him.”
Chakraborty would be pleased to learn from Warner that few other batsmen were able to match him. He enjoys bragging about the assortment of balls at his disposal, just like many mystery spinners do. But his performance this season has reinforced a fundamental truth: He performs at his best when his fundamentals are sound. This is the cause of the short lifespan of mystery spinners that only rely on the element of surprise.
Chakraborty would be pleased that he does not fall into that group based on what we have seen so far this season.