England captain Harry Brook has hailed Varun Chakaravarthy as one of the best bowlers in the world and is looking forward to the duel with the Indian spinner in the T20 World Cup semi-final on 5 March.
Chakaravarthy is the highest wicket-taker for India in the tournament, with 12 scalps to his name in seven games. Against England, the leg-spinner has taken 14 wickets in five matches at a strike rate of 7.71, with best figures of 5/24.
History suggests England have struggled against Indian spinners. Brook, however, is confident of tackling the spin challenge in Mumbai.
“England always get a bad reputation for playing spin,” he said. “But we’ve got a lot of confidence playing on turning pitches. Chakaravarthy is one of the best bowlers in the world and I’ll try my best to score as many runs as I can against him.”
Despite England’s destructive opening pair of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt not firing consistently, especially the former, the team have managed to perform well in the tournament.
It has been a collective push from England so far, with no one player dominating proceedings. On Thursday, Brook is expecting someone to deliver a big individual performance.
“All it takes is one of the top seven to get a decent score or one of our bowlers to have an amazing day,” he explained. “So far it’s mainly been team performances, but I feel like there’s a big individual performance to come soon.”
The Wankhede Stadium will host the second semi-final between England and India. This will be the third consecutive semi-final meeting between the two former champions.
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