Varun Chakravarthy: Spin Variations Of Mystery Spinner

In the last league match of Group A IND vs NZ, the 33-year-old Varun Chakravarthy made his ICC event debut with an outstanding performance. He took a five-wicket haul against the mighty New Zealand who were not able to read his variations and India clinched victory in that match by 44 runs.

Let’s deep dive into the analysis of Varun’s spin variations which no batsman could find the answer to. In the T20 format, he has picked 33 international wickets in just 18 matches, and in ODIs within 3 matches he managed to get 8 wickets.

Varun played for Punjab Kings in 2018 and later joined KKR where success came along. He took big wickets like Ms Dhoni in the IPL consecutively which earned a big name for himself. He was effective in foreign conditions as well where he deceived South African batsmen on their pitch with a commendable economy.

Varun Chakravarthy spin variations

1- Seam– Varun was a right-arm medium pacer earlier but due to no success, he switched to spinning. Due to his high arm upright action batsmen usually anticipate a spinning delivery either googly or leg-spin but it skids through the pitch with that quick arm release and when aimed towards stumps.

The batsmen are left with no time to react resulting in deception. Recently in the IND vs NZ match he took the wicket of Mitchell Santner with a cross-seam delivery with a bowled.

2- Googly– Varun has a 4-step run-up with an upright stance, releasing the ball from the top that makes it difficult for batsmen to read which one is he gonna bowl. His googly delivery is bowled with the same action from the back of the hand where his wrist is nit cocked and a quick arm speed gives no time for batsmen to judge the speed and turn of the ball, leading to getting bowled usually for right-arm batsmen.

Recently in the knockout match of IND vs AUS Champions Trophy 2025, he bowled a googly to Travis Head who was looking dangerous for India as usual and Varun got his wicket in the 1st over he bowled over long-off.

3- Leg Spin- He has a finger spin action from the front of the batsmen with the same upright action with a cock wrist. This is less anticipated and bowled delivery by Varun as he prefers to keep his line stuck to the wicket and creates more chances of dismissing batsmen with a bowled or an LBW. This variation helps him in setting up a batsman and creating a dot ball.

Looking Ahead: Varun Chakravarthy’s Future

Varun Chakravarthy has a great future ahead with team India in white ball format and a golden opportunity to perform for the team in the need of an hour i.e. in the finals of Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand on 9th March 2025 at Dubai International Stadium.

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