The 2021 IPL was when Varun Chakravarthy rose to prominence. The tournament was held in the United Arab Emirates and Varun used the conditions to his advantage and made his mark as a mystery spinner, taking 18 wickets from 17 matches at an economy rate of 6.58. His performance was a reason why Kolkata Knight Riders bounced back from a slow start and reached the final, where they lost to Chennai Super Kings.
Varun was soon drafted into the Indian T20I side and went to Sri Lanka, and from there to the 2021 T20 World Cup in UAE. At the global event, the newcomer had a rude awakening. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan unravelled his mystery by reading him off the hand and using their feet. A poor start affected his confidence and Varun returned from the tournament without taking a wicket. He was dropped from the Indian team.
His return to India’s T20I fold after a gap of three years for the ongoing series against Bangladesh offered a bit of surprise. Yes, he was a star in KKR’s title-winning campaign in this year’s IPL, with 21 wickets from 14 innings. Still, his India recall somewhat defied logic. Varun is 33 years old and given that he is not a gun fielder and doesn’t offer much with the bat, his cricket is a tad one-dimensional. But Gautam Gambhir saw him at close quarters as KKR mentor and as India coach, he played a role in bringing the spinner back to the Indian team as a wicket-taking option. The first T20I against Bangladesh in Gwalior suggested that the decision has been vindicated. Varun returned with 3/31 from his four overs and called his comeback “a rebirth”.
It has been an emotional ride for the player over the past three years and at times he struggled to control his emotions. He wasn’t picked in India’s T20I squad for the five-match series in Zimbabwe earlier this year and Varun reacted to it via a post on social media: “I wish I had a paid PR agency!!!!!!”. But he never gave up and worked on his bowling. A technical adjustment has helped him become a better bowler.
Varun gave the lowdown after the match on Sunday. “Definitely, technical work has gone through (my bowling),” he said at the post-match press conference. “I used to be a side-spin bowler, but right now, I have completely shifted to an over-spin bowler, which is a minute technical aspect of spin bowling. And from a side-spin bowler to an over-spin bowler, it took me more than two years. Slowly, slowly I was testing it in the TNPL, IPL and all those things.”
For the uninitiated, side-spin is about imparting a sideways rotation on the ball, as it moves laterally off the pitch. An over-spin bowler, on the other hand, generates top-spin on the ball, making it dip quickly in flight.
Did Varun work on mental aspects as well? “Definitely, mental aspects have to be worked on,” he said. “But the major chunk of work which I put in was on technical aspects.”
Towhid Hridoy was Varun’s first wicket yesterday – a faster delivery that skidded off the surface and forced the batsman to mistime his pull. Jaker Ali was completely flummoxed by a delivery that went through the gate to castle him. Rishad Hossain was done in by some extra bit of turn. At the end, Varun confessed to being emotional. “It has been a long three years,” he said.
This is pretty-much India’s second-string side and Varun might have to make way when Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav return to the squad. As for now, though, the Tamil Nadu spinner can take a lot of positives from a successful India comeback, after an elongated hiatus.