Veteran India spinner Varun Chakravarthy on Sunday opined on his recent struggles, blaming the unhelpful pitches rather than any “mistakes” in his bowling, while also brushing aside outside criticism as well. On a slow Eden Gardens surface in an IPL afternoon match, Chakravarthy bounced back to form with figures of 3/14, playing an important role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ first win after six matches – a four-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals as well.
“Bowlers will concede runs. Which game are you talking about?” he said in response to a query on his struggles.
Despite finishing with 14 wickets overall along with Jasprit Bumrah as the highest wicket-taker in their T20 World Cup triumph, Varun Chakravarthy gave away runs at over 11 an over in the latter stages and managed only five wickets from last five matches from the Super 8 as well.
“Just because I’ve taken three wickets today, I don’t want to make a sweeping statement. That’s the nature of the game. In the next match, if the wicket has nothing in it, that’s going to happen to every spinner. As you saw, initially every spinner was struggling. That’s how it is. Once the pitches start slowing down, that’s when we come into the game and become more effective. So it’s the nature of the game and we can’t change it. I don’t think much about it,” he said.
“I wasn’t making any mistakes — it was because of the pitches. I’m very tough on myself; if I don’t do well, I analyse what went wrong. But the pitches earlier had nothing for spinners. If you see other spinners, it was the same for everyone. It’s good that there is something in the pitch now.” Chakravarthy stressed again.
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“Once there is something in the pitch, I go back to my strength – attacking the stumps. But if there is nothing in the pitch, that’s when bowlers start getting confused, even look clueless, and that happens to everyone. It has happened to the best of the best. So no one should be judged on just one good or bad performance,” he shared again.
However, there had also been criticism that he was tinkering too much with his pace and lengths under pressure as well, but he also denied making any major changes.
“My speed has been the same. I haven’t changed anything in speed or length,” he said. “I’ve only tweaked my lines a bit… more cramping lines, not just the fourth stump channel but also wider on off or leg. I’m not sticking only to the stumps.”
Crediting head coach Abhishek Nayar for backing the players from “outside noise”, Chakravarthy shared that there were emotional scenes in the dressing room.
“Very, very significant. I can tell you I saw many tears in the dressing room today, which we didn’t even see in the year we won the IPL in 2024,” he said. “The main credit goes to the coaching staff because they didn’t let the outside noise affect us. There were too many people making judgments which were totally baseless. At such times, you need a strong core, and we have that.” He also pointed to injuries at the start of the season as a factor.”
“We started this tournament with many injuries and it actually crippled us even before it began. So I would like to give credit to the coaches, especially Abhishek Nayar. If you’re taking up a team in such conditions, you need a lot of courage. He has taken up the team in a very tough situation. Slowly, step by step, one win here, one win there, we will be back on track,” he shared again.
“There has been a lot of talk about the wickets. I don’t know who decides them, but we are ready for whatever comes. We’re open to play on any surface,” Varun Chakravarthy concluded.
