India’s Varun Chakravarthy celebrate the wicket of New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP)
Varun Chakravarthy is a later bloomer, which is rare in Indian cricket. On Sunday, Varun Chakravarthy took 5 for 42 and helped India beat New Zealand by 44 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. It was Varun’s first five-wicket haul in only his second one-day international.
The 33-year-old has picked up cricket when he was 26. At the press conference in Dubai, he has opened up about his different career paths.
“So, I started cricket very late, pretty late, when I was 26 I started cricket, so before that my dreams were all building, being an architect and making movies,” he told reporters.
“I’ve had different career paths, so it has been different, after 26 is what I started dreaming about cricket and all those things are happening, so yeah, it’s been good right now,” he said.
India’s Varun Chakravarthy bowls a delivery during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and New Zealand, in Dubai, UAE. (AP)
Chakravarthy was tough to handle for the lower order, taking four wickets across six overs in his latter spell to reach the five-for milestone – the earliest for an Indian bowler in ODIs.
The Indian spinner maintained that the Dubai pitch was double paced but it was not a rank turner.
“So it was not a rank turner as such, which people were projecting it to be, but definitely it was holding on a bit and it was deviating a little bit just to create the doubt,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
Indian players celebrate after winning the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match over New Zealand, in Dubai, UAE. (PTI)
“Basically you had to play around it. I would dedicate my five wickets to the other bowlers also, the way they bowled on the other side helped me pick wickets in this set,” he said.
Varun was the last entrant to India’s Champions Trophy squad. He replaced opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and the Tamil Nadu bowler credited to his performance in the T20I series against England, where he scalped 14 wickets in five matches.
“I think so, yeah, because my T20 series went well, probably they thought that the pitches in Dubai might be slower and I might be of some use for the team and that was the thinking behind it and yeah, it has worked this match,” he said.
