Varun Chakravarthy records career-best T20I figures on India return after 1066 days

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After a long gap of three years, Varun Chakravarthy made a sensational comeback to India's T20I squad, finishing with 3/31 in the ongoing first T20I vs Bangladesh in Gwalior, on Sunday. The 33-year-old took the wickets of Towhid Hridoy (12), Jaker Ali (8) and Rishad Hossain (11), making his first appearance for India after 1066 days.

For his first wicket, Chakravarthy sent a flat leggie on short of length, and Hridoy ended up hitting it straight to Hardik Pandya at long-on for a simple catch.

Then he struck again in the 10th over, taking the wicket of Ali. The 33-year-old sent a googly on full length, which went past Ali to hit the stumps. Then in the 14th over, he sent a short length delivery which Hossain top-edged to Pandya near deep midwicket for a catch.

Varun Chakravarthy's comeback due to IPL 2024 performance

Varun's comeback comes after his stunning performance in IPL 2024, where he was the second-highest wicket-taker. Between his comeback T20I and his last appearance, Varun missed 86 matches. This is also the second-highest number of T20Is missed between two appearances for Team India. Pacer Khaleel Ahmed is the only other player with more missed matches (104) than Varun.

He had his breakthrough season during IPL 2020, and he got selected for the national team. But he failed to replicate his IPL form in international cricket, taking only two wickets in six matches before his comeback game.

Varun made his List A debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2018. He was also the leading wicket-taker fr Tamil Nadu in that edition, with 22 wickets in nine matches. He also made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy in 2018.

In December 2018, PBKS purchased him for ₹8.4 crore for IPL 2019. He was released by PBKS ahead of the IPL 2020 auction. During the auction, he was acquired by KKR.

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