Varun Chakravarthy continued to be in the zone for India in T20Is on Wednesday (November 13) as well during the third T20I of the four-match series against South Africa at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The thirty-three-year-old bowler helped India get a win by eleven runs after successfully defending a target of two hundred and nineteen runs after conceding fifty-four runs in four overs and taking two wickets.
Thus by taking two wickets in the third match, Chakravarthy brought his total wicket tally to 10 in these three matches. Hence after picking 10 wickets in this series, It is noted that Chakravarthy became the first Indian bowler to do so in a bilateral T20I in the history of cricket.
He surpassed the previous record set by Ravichandran Ashwin, who took nine wickets in three T20 matches against Sri Lanka in an Indian series in 2016.
Most wickets in a bilateral T20I series for India
Varun Chakravarthy – 10* vs South Africa (2024)
Ravichandran Ashwin – 9 vs Sri Lanka (2016)
Ravi Bishnoi – 9 vs Australia (2023)
Deepak Chahar – 8 vs Bangladesh (2019)
Axar Patel – 8 vs Australia (2022)
Ravi Bishnoi – 8 vs West Indies (2022)
Yuzvendra Chahal – 8 vs Sri Lanka (2017)
Mukesh Kumar – 8 vs Zimbabwe (2024)
Yuzvendra Chahal – 8 vs England (2017)
Washington Sundar – 8 vs Zimbabwe (2024)
Shardul Thakur – 8 vs New Zealand (2020)
Shardul Thakur – 8 vs England (2021)
Chakravarthy, who returned to the India T20I setup after nearly three years in October 2024, played the first T20I match against South Africa at Kingsmead, Durban on November 08, where he took three wickets giving away 25 runs in four overs. In the second T20I that took place at St. George’s Park Gqeberha on November 10, Supriya achieved her career-best bowling in T20Is for India after taking five wickets for 17 runs in four overs.
Nonetheless, despite his impressive five wickets, the match ended up being futile since India could not defend the score of 124 and ultimately lost the match by three wickets.
Chakravarthy is one of the three Indian bowlers to claim five wickets in a T20 match against South Africa. Bhuvneshwar Kumar had achieved the feat against South Africa in a T20I match held in Johannesburg in 2018, while Kuldeep Yadav matched his record on 14th December 2023, when he dismisses five South African batters during a T20I held at the same venue.
The record for the highest number of wickets taken in a T20I series against one opponent belongs to Jason Holder, a cricketer from West Indies. While playing 5 T20Is against England and West Indies in January 2022, he claimed 15 wickets.
