Varun Chakravarthy’s rapid rise in the cricketing world took a giant step forward on Monday as he was named in India’s T20 International squad for the upcoming tour of Australia.
The 29-year-old spinner has been in good form in the ongoing 13th edition of the Indian Premier League. Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, he has accounted for some big wickets this season and grabbed headlines recently with a five-wicket haul against Delhi Capitals. It was the first five-for of the tournament and it prompted Eoin Morgan to praise the bowler as the leader of his bowling attack.
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Varun worked as an architect till a few years ago, but he decided to take another shot at cricket and his life turned upside down. “In around 2015, when I wasn’t making enough money freelancing as an architect, I thought of doing something different and turned to cricket,” he said after picking up the five-for against DC.
He has played one first-class game for Tamil Nadu, nine List A matches and 11 T20s. But it was in the Tamil Nadu Premier League where he caught the right people’s attention.
Varun Chakravarthy..
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 26, 2020
1 - FC match for Tamil Nadu (in Nov 2018) - 1 wkt
9 - List A games for Tamil Nadu (from Sept-Oct 2018) - 22 wkts
12 - T20 games (all in #IPL) for KXIP (1) and KKR (11) (from Mar 2019 to Oct 2020) - 13 wkts#IndvAus#AusvInd
Here’s Varun’s cricketing journey as told to Kolkata Knight Riders:
Here’s Varun talking about his journey to Harsha Bhogle after a five-for against DC:
Here’s his 5-wicket haul against DC:
