With his uncanny action and release, he always keeps the batters guessing.
The India team made a couple of last-minute changes to the 15-man squad when Jasprit Bumrah got ruled out for the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. While Harshit Rana was named Bumrah’s replacement, the Indian selectors also decided to opt for an extra spinner in Varun Chakravarthy by axing young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Notably, Chakravarthy has been in stellar form of late, picking up 10-plus wickets in the last two T20I series that India played against South Africa and England. With his uncanny action and release, he consistently keeps batters on their toes, never letting them anticipate his next move.
Echoing on the same lines, India skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that Varun doesn’t show all of his variations in the nets as well.
Speaking at the pre-match conference on the eve of the Bangladesh encounter, Rohit said,
“Net mein toh humko zyada variations dalta nahi hai wo. Ek his tareeke see ball dalta hai. Ho sakta hai who humko bhi nahi dikhana chahta ki usike paas kya hai. (He doesn’t bowl a lot of variations in the nets. He bowls one type of delivery only. Perhaps he doesn’t want us even us to know what he’s got)”.
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Varun Chakravarthy made his ODI debut during the England series, although he featured in just one match. Alongside Kuldeep Yadav, he is one of the two specialist spinners in the squad. Other spin options include Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar, all of whom are also skilled with the bat.
The team, which leans heavily on spin, has three pace-bowling options: Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshit Rana. Hardik Pandya serves as the only pace-bowling all-rounder in the lineup.
Justifying the decision, skipper Rohit reasoned that they wanted to play to their strengths and hence opted for a spin-laden bowling attack.
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