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Mayank Yadav grabbed everyone’s attention. With his 3 for 14, Arshdeep Singh won Player-of-the-Match. Despite keeping the Bangladeshi batsmen quiet, Hardik Pandya was a terrifying force at the plate. Varun Chakravarthy, on the other hand, saw a “rebirth” after contributing significantly to India’s decisive seven-wicket victory in Sunday’s first Twenty20 International in Gwalior. After all, he was going to be back for India after November 2021, and 3 for 31 wasn’t bad at all.
“After three long years and… it was definitely emotional for me, and it feels nice to be back in the Blues, it feels like a rebirth,” he told Murali Kartik on the official broadcast after the game.
“There have been many [challenges]. Once you are not in the Indian side, people tend to write you off very easily. You need to stay in the highest level, again and again you need to keep knocking the door. Thankfully, this time it happened and hopefully I can keep continuing my good work.”
Varun has had a really successful year. IPL 2024 was won by his club, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). With 21 wickets from 14 innings, he was the second-highest wicket-taker for the squad overall. That concluded in May. Dindigul Dragons emerged victorious in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) in August. Once more, his squad, but captain R Ashwin is the highlight of the arrangement. Varun finished with a 2 for 26 score. At 12 wickets for the event, he tied Sandeep Warrier for the team record and was tied for fifth place overall.
And now this global reappearance.
“After IPL, I played a few tournaments and one of those was the TNPL. It’s a very good tournament, and high standard [of cricket] also,” Varun said. “That’s a place where I worked a lot, with Ash bhai [Ashwin]. We won the competition also, and that gave me the confidence here, because it was good preparation for me for this series.
“I just want to stick to the process because that’s what I have been following in the IPL also. So I don’t want to go over and beyond what’s there right now. I just want to stay in the present. That’s why I don’t want to think too much or express too much.”
Varun was brought on Sunday in the fifth over. At deep square-leg, Towhid Hridoy swiped him in the air with his second delivery, heading straight for rookie Nitish Kumar Reddy. Reddy raced forward to make the catch, but he lost the ball in the lights and allowed it to go for four. Using his skills to confuse the batters, Varun got Hridoy in his next over and then Jaker Ali and Rishad Hossain, although he wasn’t happy about the drop.
“I thought it could have gone my way, but I can’t complain,” he said. “But, yeah, thankful to god.”