One can only imagine what Varun Chakaravarthy felt after being dropped from the Indian cricket team during the 2021 T20 World Cup. Although the mystery spinner went wicketless in those three games, he wasn’t India’s worst bowler in any of those games. However, when push came to shove, he was the one who was chucked away.
Chakaravarthy’s rebirth
It took Chakaravarthy nearly 3 years to make his way back to the team. Knowing he’d lost time, he made up for it against Bangladesh, claiming a 3-fer and bagging the ‘Player of the Match’ award. Ecstatic with his performance, he labelled it as his ‘rebirth’.
“After three long years, it was definitely emotional for me, and it feels nice to be back in the Blues. Feels like a rebirth. I just want to stick to the process because that’s what I was doing in the IPL also. I just want to stay in the present and don’t want to think or express too much,” Chakaravarthy said in the post-match interview.
Ashwin’s help
During the long gap between the IPL and the India vs Bangladesh series, the spinner played some tournaments, including the Tamil Nadu Premier League, to keep himself in nick. He credited the tournament and working him Indian legend Ravichandran Ashwin for his excellent performance in Gwalior.
“After the IPL, I played a few tournaments, and one of those was the TNPL. That’s a place where I worked a lot, with Ash bhai (Ravichandran Ashwin) also. It was good preparation for me for this series,” he added.
Here to stay
Chakaravarthy also stated that people often write you off when you aren’t consistently playing for Team India. He kept tough despite slights and several challenges and decided to put his head down, work and produced results. “There have been many challenges. Once you are not in the Indian side, people tend to write you off. But you have to stay at the highest level and keep knocking on the door. Thankfully, this time it paid off,” he concluded.
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