‘When he is around, there is no mediocrity’, Varun Chakravarthy on Indian coach Gautam Gambhir

‌After two good seasons with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, Varun Chakravarthy made his Indian debut against Sri Lanka in a T20 series ahead of the World Cup in 2021. He got two wickets from the first two games but went wicketless in the next four games, including in the marquee event, before being dropped from the side.

A couple of impressive seasons with KKR in the IPL again meant he found his way back into the side under coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav. He has had a dream run in his second innings with the Men in Blue picking up 38 wickets from 18 matches at an astonishing average of 12.95 and a strike rate of 9.31.

In between, he made his ODI debut earlier this year and was part of the victorious Champions Trophy squad in Dubai, picking up nine wickets from three games. The mystery spinner credited the change in fortunes to coach Gambhir’s Spartan mentality, which has benefitted the team too. The team management’s strategy of going for wickets in the shortest format has worked in favour of the Tamil Nadu spinner.

"Definitely one thing which I can say about is he brings a Spartan mentality to the team where there is no option of losing. You just have to bring your best and give everything on the ground, and later on, whatever happens, happens," Varun said at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"When he is around, there is no mediocrity - you can't be mediocre in the field, that's what I feel."

"When I made my comeback again, Surya and GG , they spoke to me and they told me that we are looking at you as one of the wicket-takers. And they have backed me throughout. For that, I have to give them the credit.

"I was out of the team for more than three years, but I did have a consecutive good IPL. For them to recognise that and bring me into the team was great for me."

After his impressive showing in the shorter format, Varun has his eyes firm on being a regular in the ODIs too. Though the spinner was not named in the Indian squad for the ODIs in Australia, Varun threw light on the conversations he had with Gambhir to break into the ODI setup too.

"Basically, the conversations were around bowling longer spells. Because in T20, you maximum bowl two overs back-to-back. But in ODIs, you have to bowl five to six overs back-to-back, which I did work on, and I was able to do it in the Champions Trophy.

"And he wants me to bat a little more up the order in the domestic circuit and improve on my batting."