Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner, describes his return to the India cricket team after three years away as a ‘rebirth’ and an ‘emotional moment’ while paying tribute to legendary R Ashwin for boosting his confidence during the last edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League. Chasing down the visitors’ paltry score of 127 without breaking sweat and with 49 balls remaining, the Suryakumar Yadav led team took a 1-0 lead in the three match series thanks to Varun’s brilliant bowling performance which earned him figures of 3/31. “After three long years, it was definitely emotional for me. It is good to wear the Blues once again. This is definitely a rebirth, I just wish to follow the process, which is what I have been doing in the IPL also,” Varun told host broadcasters ‘Jio Cinema’ after the game.
Varun disturbed the Bangladesh batters who could not read him. Among them was middle-order batter Jaker Ali, who was bowled out with a ball that pitched on middle and turned back in and knocked his stumps.
The 33-year-old spinner, who featured in the T20I format for the seventh time, further added that, he wants to purely bask in the moment and does not wish to see in the future too much.
“I don’t want to go beyond what’s there and I just want to stay in the present, that’s why I don’t want to think too much or express too much. After IPL I played few tournaments and one of those was TNPL; it’s a very good tournament and high standard as well.” Varun went on to say that during the TNPL, he was greatly assisted by Indian off-spinner R Ashwin, and that this had a positive effect on him.
‘There’s a tournament like that (TNPL) where I do plenty of work, along with Ash (Ashwin) bhai o whom we even emerged champions. That encouraged me here. It was a very good preparation for me for this series.
Referring to the dropped catch while fielding Kalra during his first over, Varun added that a dropped catch is a part of the game.
“It could have worked in my favor, but that is cricket; therefore there is nothing to grumble, I am very grateful to God. Many have been (difficulties), once you go outside of the Indian team, for some reason, it’s very easy for people to forget you. You have to be at the top all the time, sooner or later you have to knock the door again and again, blessed this time it happened. I believe I can carry on the good work.”
Pace bowler Arshdeep Singh, who was named the Player of the Match, felt that Mayank Yadav’s bowling performance was commendable just coming back from a long-term injury.
“Even my normal balls felt like slow balls in comparison to his (Mayank) velocity. Really hyped the way everyone bowled, especially excited about Mayank’s performance,” he said.
