Varun Chakaravarthy, the enigmatic spinner, has shed light on his three-year hiatus from international cricket, describing it as a “tough” period. He credits his return to form to the domestic grind and the clarity of role provided by new head coach Gautam Gambhir.
In the second T20I against South Africa, the 33-year-old achieved career-best figures of 5 for 17. However, India suffered a three-wicket defeat in a low-scoring thriller.
“Definitely, the last three years were a little tough,” Chakaravarthy said. “The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. And I started playing a lot of the domestic league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better. And that’s what helped me.”
As a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Chakaravarthy won the IPL title last season under the leadership of Gambhir, who was then appointed head coach of the Indian team. Chakaravarthy said Gambhir gave him guidance during the Bangladesh tour, helping him regain form.
“Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he was coaching the team. And definitely we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity. He told me, even if you go for 30-40 runs, it doesn’t matter. All you have to look is to pick wickets. So that’s your role in the team. And yeah, the clarity which they gave definitely helped me.”
Chakaravarthy’s remarkable spell helped reduce South Africa to 66 for 6 while they pursued a modest target of 125. However, a determined partnership between Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) guided the hosts home in 19 overs, ending India’s 11-match winning streak.
Chakaravarthy revealed that during the innings break, skipper Suryakumar Yadav urged the team to focus on giving their all without dwelling on the result. “During the innings break, Surya (skipper) came and told us that let’s not think about the result and let’s just go all out. And that’s what we tried to do. We did our best and we could have pulled it off.”
“Obviously, the mindset has to be aggressive when the score is low. You have to pick wickets and that’s when we can win the match. That has to be my approach in the next two games also because it’s going to be a do-or-die match for us,” he said.
Performing well against a strong team like South Africa, according to Chakaravarthy, will give him confidence going into the remaining games. “Definitely, when we came to South Africa, we knew that it’s going to be a challenging tour because the Proteas, they are one of the best teams right now and they have a powerful batting lineup.”
“Doing well against them definitely gives me motivation to do more better and definitely I can. Hopefully I can do well in the upcoming games.”
India will face South Africa in the third and final T20Is on Wednesday and Friday at Centurion and Johannesburg, respectively.
