Former England captain Michael Vaughan applauded Varun Chakravarthy and named him a mystery spinner after the Indian bowler claimed three wickets in the first T20I in Kolkata on Wednesday, January 22. He also urged England to find a way of putting the pressure back on him, who has been in fantastic form in T20Is lately as well. Notably, India beat England by seven wickets in the first T20I at the Eden Gardens.

During a discussion on Cricbuzz, Vaughan hailed Varun Chakravarthy, saying: “Chakravarthy is a lovely mystery spinner – kind of brings the ball back into the right-handers. Every now and again, he will just hold one up. He’s not a huge spinner of the ball, but just does enough, which makes it very difficult – always brings the stumps into play. He is very consistent and also very smart. England have got to find a different method of trying to put him under pressure.”

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Chakravarthy isn’t very expressive and he hardly celebrates after claiming a wicket. This is another aspect of him that has impressed Michael Vaughan a lot.

“I love watching him bowl because when he gets a wicket, he doesn’t celebrate. He just kind of walks away in an old-fashioned kind of celebration.” “Today, it didn’t really spin a great deal, so they’ve got a bit of work to do with the way that they combat spin and try to find a way of not only just surviving but scoring. In T20 cricket, you’ve got to find that counter-punch to put bowlers under pressure,” Michael Vaughan concluded.