Varun Chakravarthy wasted no time to prove his worth in ODIs with a spectacular five-wicker haul in India’s final Champions Trophy group stage game against New Zealand. After warming the bench for two matches, the Tamil Nadu spinner finally got an opportunity in the match against New Zealand. And what did he do? He finished with astonishing figures of 5/42, that too just in his second ODI.
Varun credits mentality, teammates for CT 2025 success
In a video uploaded by BCCI, Varun seemed unperturbed by being benched in Champions Trophy until the clash against New Zealand. The mystery spinner admitted that he had taken part in back-to-back domestic tournaments followed by a long IND vs ENG tour following which he had ample amount of rest until the game on Sunday.
“The only challenge for me was to be brave, don’t chicken out, the stage is bigger and the only thing I was telling myself was to leave it to God and follow the process and everything will follow. Don’t put yourself in a shell and restrict yourself,” Chakravarthy said.
𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝘂𝗻 (𝗖𝗩) 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 3, 2025
He swooped in to the action and made an impact
A performance that had all of us inlike our bowling coach
WATCH#TeamIndia | #NZvIND | #ChampionsTrophy https://t.co/SZpueRrz2p
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“The thing what I takeaway from this match is to be confident from the start. That’s how champions do and seeing Virat, Rohit and Hardik, that is what I am able to learn,” Chakravarthy added.
India bowling coach Morne Morkel said that he was very happy that Varun got the opportunity and credited Chakravarthy for trying really hard for the last 2-3 months. The Proteas cricketer pointed out that the spinner was nervous initially but was oozing confidence once he got the first wicket.
Chakravarthy’s spell and figures, which bamboozled the New Zealand batters, earned him the Player of the Match award on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if India stick with him for the semi-final clash against Australia on March 4.
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