Shamik Chakrabarty in Dubai
It was a rude awakening for Varun Chakravarthy. Nearly four years ago, he came to Dubai for the T20 World Cup, carrying the tag of a mystery spinner. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan unravelled the mystery quickly, as India lost to Pakistan by 10 wickets. On Sunday, in a Champions Trophy game against New Zealand, the same venue witnessed his redemption.
Varun had to sit out for three long years after that T20 World Cup flop show. Maybe, without Gautam Gambhir becoming the India coach, he was never going to make a comeback to the national team fold. At 33, age was not on his side. But Gambhir saw him at close quarters at Kolkata Knight Riders and insisted that the spinner deserved a second chance.
He was brought back to the T20I set-up and the trickle-down effect of his performances there brought him to the ODI side. Ahead of the Champions Trophy, Gambhir had described Varun as the team’s potential “X-factor”. In his first game of the tournament, against a strong New Zealand side, he returned a five-for.
“Yeah, of course, in 2021, personally, I didn’t have a great tournament here. But I do feel that I did bowl decently. The results were not our way. But it looks good right now. And Team India is doing well. The combinations have set very well. So it feels good,” Varun said at the post-match press conference.
What changed between 2021 and 2025? Varun had earlier spoken about his transformation from a side-spin bowler to one preferring over-spin. Still, for a spinner, considered to be a T20 specialist, the challenge was to get into the 50-over groove. Domestic cricket helped.
“My sequencing of balls as in how I construct an over (in T20s) is totally different compared to the 50-over format. That I was able to figure out when I played the last two years in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. And it really helped me understand when I can bowl my incoming delivery or outgoing delivery or the straighter one or the top spin, whatever it is. But that gave me a sense of awareness of when to bowl. It is completely different from what I do in T20s. So, yeah, that took me a lot of playing.”
He did play a lot of cricket, from Tamil Nadu Premier League to the IPL, and also the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It helped him become more accurate. The most significant part of his bowling these days is how he varies his pace.
On the match eve, Varun came to know that he would be playing against New Zealand. It set the butterflies in his stomach in motion, a reason why he wasn’t quite in his element upfront. The senior players in the team helped him settle down.
“Of course, the first spell of mine I was a little nervous because the previous things, the emotions and all were playing — whatever happened in the last three years. I was trying to keep it down, control it. But Virat bhai, Rohit bhai and even Hardik; they were telling me ‘calm down, calm down’. They were coming and talking to me. That really helped.”
A question on his mystery was always on the cards and it came in due course. Varun answered it with a straight face. “Basically the ball goes inside, outside and goes straight. So, you can keep it that way, but there are minute changes that you can do with that also.”
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