Mumbai: From being chided by then India skipper Virat Kohli for failing to meet the requisite fitness standards to a commanding performance on international return against Bangladesh (3/31) in Gwalior on Sunday, Varun Chakravarthy has come a long way. So has India’s outlook to T20 cricket.

Three years back when Chakravarthy lost his place from a bilateral series for failing a fitness test, India were risk averse, not keeping pace with the shortest format. The Tamil Nadu mystery spinner ultimately did get picked for the 2021 T20 World Cup following an impressive IPL but couldn’t produce instant results and was soon forgotten.

India’s selection criteria for T20Is were not too dissimilar to other formats. At 33, given Chakravarthy’s unusual pathway to international cricket – angst towards the game, return through tennis ball cricket – meant his fielding and batting abilities remained below par. What Chakravarthy brought was trickery with his fingers, mastered through tennis ball cricket, which he seamlessly segued to the higher grade. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir saw it first hand while mentoring Kolkata Knight Riders in the last IPL and wanted to give the mystery spinner another chance.

Chakravarthy brought out a lot from his bag of tricks in Gwalior. The first over went for runs but it included a googly which should have gone to hand but was grassed. He took a wicket in each of his following overs. He put on display an assortment of googlies, the leg-spinner, carrom ball and the quicker slider he appears to have worked on.

“I used to be a side-spin bowler, but right now, I have completely shifted to being an over-spin bowler,” Chakravarthy explained. “It’s a minute technical aspect of spin bowling, but it took me more than two years. I gradually tested it in TNPL and IPL. While the mental aspect also had to be worked on, the major chunk of the effort I put in was on the technical side.”

Among people who Chakravarthy worked with was his Dindigul Dragons captain R Ashwin in TNPL. Ashwin’s hypothesis on the use of spin in T20 cricket is quite clear; be as unpredictable as possible to arrest the flow of runs. Being a mystery spinner, it’s a trait that comes naturally to Chakravarthy. Allied to that is his ability to take wickets, which should fit in with the outlook of the current team management.

IPL consistency

Bilateral T20Is these days can be a laboratory for experiments due to depleted player pools. But Chakravarthy has been among the most consistently effective spinners in IPL over the past five years (82 wickets, ER 7.5). Together with Sunil Narine, the spin twins have created such a stranglehold over batters that some suspend belief that they can be counter attacked. Once Gambhir made it clear that “India’s T20I side should be selected from IPL”, it opened the doors for the likes of Chakravarthy.

Similarly for Ravi Bishnoi, who sat out on Sunday to make way for Chakravarthy. Another unconventional spinner who relies predominantly on his fast googlies. Since he made his international debut in February 2022, Bishnoi is only a wicket behind Axar Patel among spinners to have taken the most T20I wickets (49) for India. But when it came to selection for the pinnacle of the format, the World Cup, the selectors looked past him for Yuzvendra Chahal’s leg-spin. Chahal, India’s highest T20I wickettaker (96), did not get a game in the 2024 winning campaign in USA-West Indies.

“There is good competition and good camaraderie,” Chakravarthy said. “And the person who was cheering me was Ravi Bishnoi; he was coming and giving me messages, so I can’t ask for more. It’s actually good to have such competition so that people will keep pushing each other. Someone will be better than others at one point of time and he will definitely get the Cup for India, so that competition is required.”

Almost certain to win his spot back is chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who creates his own angle and comes with his own brand of mystery spin. While Axar and Washington Sundar will push for berths with their all-round abilities, the variations that India’s band of mystery spinners produce will keep fans hooked. The batters are under notice.

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