Varun Chakravarthy (ICC photo)
KOLKATA: The only thing that catches your attention about Varun Chakravarthy is his complete lack of facial expressions. Just by looking at him, you wouldn’t know whether he took a wicket or scored a six.
In fact, his teammates seem to be more excited about his accomplishments than he is. But that doesn’t take away from him being an integral part of the Indian T20 team.Varun is now back to the place where he flourished in the past. The 34-year-old googly bowler with a broken leg, an important part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad in the IPL, will call Eden Gardens home. Of his 100 wickets in IPL, 99 of them are for KKR, and this famous venue contributes a good number of these wickets.
This is not lost on the Indian team management, and assistant coach Ryan Ten Deutschat agrees that Varun can be one of their strong weapons here.
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“It is clear that Varun has had a lot of success here,” Ten Dewichat said on Saturday. “I think the way we have used Varun so far is pretty standard. He bowls one ball in the Powerplay. He is our attacking option as well.”But, is Varun still as effective as he was in his early days? In the last two matches against South Africa and Zimbabwe, he conceded 82 runs for his two wickets.
Do speculators approach it differently? Ten Doeschate tends to agree.
“We are also aware that teams are now starting to play him a little differently. So we have some other strategies to deploy him in different aspects of the game. But overall, he is someone we turn to to get wickets and he has been really good at that and we expect more of the same on Sunday.”West Indies will not take Varone lightly despite his relatively indifferent form. “Last time I checked, I think he was the No. 1 player in T20 cricket,” West Indies coach Darren Sammy said. “We respect every opponent. We have our plans against all our bowlers and vice versa, our bowlers versus their batsmen.”
We have to play a full match.”
Returning to the familiar surroundings of the Gardens of Eden, the occasion could be just the perfect place for Varun to silence his doubters. An early wicket in his powerful game could give India the advantage.The team is firmly behind RenkoTen Dewichat said the team stands firm with batsman Rinku Singh, who lost his father to cancer on Friday. “It’s obviously a very sad time and he will continue to have the love and support from everyone,” he said.