Last three years were tough, changed everything about my bowling: Varun

GQEBERHA: Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has described the three-year gap from international cricket as “tough”, saying he had to completely overhaul his bowling after finding that his orthodox side-spin wasn’t working at higher levels.

The 33-year-old recorded his career-best figures of 5 for 17 in Sunday’s second T20I against South Africa, though his efforts could not prevent India from losing by three wickets.

“I had to go back to the drawing board and check out all my videos. I figured out that I was bowling side spin and it was not working out in the higher levels,” he told Jio Cinema.

“I had to change everything about my bowling. It took me two years and I started bowling in the local leagues and IPL also. It worked there and I have started bowling it in the international stage and it’s working out for me.”

While side spin creates enough revolutions to make the ball drift sideways, over-spin generates a sharp bounce and turn.

Talking about what worked for him as he added a fifer on Sunday to the three wickets he scalped in the first T20I in Durban, Varun said: “It is a combination of both my consistency and overspin.

“The overspin I bowl has more bite from the pitch and hopefully I can keep doing that and I can keep contributing to the country.”

Varun was axed from the Indian team after going wicketless during the 2021 World Cup but he earned his place back after his exploits in the last two editions of the IPL. He snapped 20 wickets in IPL 2023 before finishing as the second highest wicket-taker this year.

“Definitely, the last three years were a little tough,” Varun said.

“The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. And I started playing a lot of the domestic league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better.”

Varun was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL-winning team this year under Gambhir, who recently took over as the coach of the Indian team and he credited the role clarity provided by the coach for helping him to regain his lost form.

“Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he was coaching the team. And definitely we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity.

“He told me, even if you go for 30-40 runs, it doesn’t matter. All you have to look is to pick wickets. So that’s your role in the team. The clarity which they gave definitely helped me.”

Varun’s match-changing spell reduced South Africa to 66 for 6 while chasing a modest target of 125, but a gritty partnership between Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) saw the host home in 19 overs, ending India’s 11-match winning streak.