Ravichandran Ashwin had made the plea while he was playing for Punjab Kings (Formerly Kings XI Punjab).
Punjab Kings (PBKS), runners-up of IPL 2025, have been left to rue Ravichandran Ashwin’s final plea to not release Varun Chakravarthy before IPL 2020. At the IPL 2019 auction, Punjab Kings (Then Kings XI Punjab), had acquired Varun Chakravarthy for INR 8.4 crore.
He made his IPL debut for Kings XI Punjab against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2019, but that would be the only match he would play that season. The mystery spinner then sustained a finger injury which ruled him out of the rest of the tournament.
That was also the only game that Varun Chakravarthy played for Kings XI Punjab, before being released after the IPL 2019 season. He was later acquired by Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 4 crore, and would go onto win the IPL title with the franchise in 2024.
However, Ravichandran Ashwin, who was the captain of Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2019, revealed that he had requested Kings XI Punjab to not release Varun Chakravarthy after that season, despite having played just one match because of the injury. Ravichandran Ashwin himself was traded to Delhi Capitals (DC) after the IPL 2019 season.
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“Before I moved on to Delhi on trade, we were having a board meeting. I said it’s okay, you guys can do whatever you want. But don’t let this guy go. As luck would have it, you went, KKR picked you, and you guys became the champions (In 2024),” Ravichandran Ashwin told Varun Chakravarthy during an episode of Kutti Stories, a show hosted by Ashwin himself.
In his IPL debut match in 2019, Varun finished with figures of 1/35 from three overs. That turned out to be a match-winning spell as Kings XI Punjab defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 28 runs.
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Fast forward to IPL 2024, Varun went on to play a crucial role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ title triumph. He ended as the tournament’s second-highest wicket-taker with 21 wickets from 15 matches at an economy rate of 8.04.
Till date Varun Chakravarthy has taken 99 wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders from 82 matches across six seasons. In May this year, the 33-year-old became the joint-fastest spinner to reach 100 IPL wickets. He did so in 83 matches, which was the same number of matches that Amit Mishra and Rashid Khan took for their milestones.
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