Varun Chakravarthy was among the few playing XI regulars to turn up for India’s pre-match optional practice day on Wednesday, at the Wankhede Stadium. A long single-wicket workout, overseen by India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel, has been his pre-match day routine for much of the T20 World Cup.
On other training days, he has tested himself against the big batting blades of his teammates. Chakravarthy has done plenty of bowling to prepare for matches.
In-tournament practice is such an individual thing. Jasprit Bumrah rarely exerts himself. Even with spinners, not everyone wants to turn up for every session. Then there are perfectionists who are hard on themselves. India’s mystery spinner is one from that breed.
But the 34-year-old has not set the World Cup alight. He hasn’t had anywhere close to the outcomes expected of him. He’s still among the wickets; he’s not gone wicketless for six months across 20 T20Is. But he has conceded more runs than he usually does, including quite a few expensive overs. In the last seven out of 11 matches, he has gone for nine or more runs per over.
Given that Chakravathry has been pinned down for runs in each of the Super 8 matches – 1/40 against West Indies, 1/35 against Zimbabwe and 1/47 against South Africa – he would have a burning desire to exploit ways to ask newer questions of the batters.
“I can’t reveal his process, but I keep on telling him that in our bowling lineup, with the skill and variation Varun’s got, he’s got the ability to take a wicket almost every ball,” Morkel said.
“So if he goes for a boundary, he’s not executed as well as possible. For him it’s just to move on to the next one and make sure he commits to that next ball. I think he’s a highly skilful guy, hard to pick once you walk into the crease. So for him it’s just about getting that confidence with the ball, getting his speed, his length, control right and not trying to overthink it.”
That overthinking comes when your core skills are being tested. With mystery spinners, their calling card is their novelty factor. Like it is for magicians, they operate with a constant fear that the sorcery shouldn’t go missing. It explains why there are days when Chakravarthy would explain his art tersely, saying, “a ball goes inside, outside and goes straight.” On other days he would pose a question, saying there was a new variation in the works.
The new variation he spoke about during the World Cup was either a mirage or he hasn’t had the confidence to experiment.
The Kolkata Knight Riders spinner’s shift from predominantly a side-spin bowler to an over-spin bowler has been well documented. In the Super 8 match, South African batting duo David Miller and Dewald Brevis showed how they could tackle him every time he tried to bowl slow.
Subsequently, good batters have been able to line up against him.
“It wasn’t spinning too much, so you could kind of trust the line. And once we felt that, then we felt we’ve got to take him down because he is a threat to every team that he does play against,” Miller later explained.
New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips had made a similar point about Chakravarthy being easier to play when the pitch had less spin to offer.
The centre strip at Wankhede is expected to be batting friendly. England batters are carrying some good form against spin from their outings in Sri Lanka.
For Chakravathry to make an impression, he would have to bring his A-game.
The South African batting onslaught against India’s No. 1 spinner somewhat blunted India’s bowling arsenal. They have had to experiment with using Chakravarthy more defensively – only in the middle overs. For the proud spinner, who was to be the wicket-taking ally to Bumrah, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. He would be desperate to turn it around.
In trying to do that, he could heed the advice his bowling coach seemed to be offering.
“I think with Varun at times…to his credit, he wants to be a big performer for the team, so he’ll put a little bit of pressure on himself,” Morkel said.
With the great spinners, the pressure would never show. Over the next few days, Chakravathy has the privilege of the challenge to make a push and be counted amongst those big tournament bowlers.
