Former India captain Anil Kumble has hit the nail on the head in the matter pertaining to mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy‘s insufficiencies in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
India play England later today in the second semifinal in Mumbai, and many believe how Chakaravarthy bowls can be a decisive factor. Chakaravarthy was particularly taken to the cleaners in the Super 8s. His economy rate was alarming in those three matches against South Africa, Zimbabwe and the West Indies. On the whole, he conceded more than 10 runs in an over and all he took was just three wickets.
In the group stage, he bowled better but then there were largely Associate nations he was up against. He is India’s highest wicket-taker so far with 12 wickets in seven games but there hasn’t been a game-changing performance as yet, especially against top opposition teams.
The truth of the matter is Chakaravarthy is bowling too many balls that are spinning into the batsmen, and they, finding him predictable, have been able to dispatch him into the stands on the legside more often than not. Kumble, India’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with scalps more than 600, has faulted that approach and wants the Indian spinner to make an interesting change to that.
Come on Chakaravarthy, do this please!
“Maybe the analyst can probably pull out how many times is he looking to actually take the ball away from a right-hander. I haven’t seen that much. Maybe that’s something that he could potentially do. Then, the ball coming back into the right-hander becomes that much more dangerous,” Kumble on a ESPNcricinfo podcast.
“Although the batters are not able to pick that every time he bowls, now it seems like the batters are only expecting the ball coming into them, and playing him that way, rather than sort of searching for it. So, maybe he needs to mix a few balls, which goes away from the right-hander, and then possibly bring that back in,” Kumble added.
The venue of the India-England semifinal, the Wankhede Stadium, is expected to be conducive to batsmen. It’s a small ground to boot. So, Chakaravarthy becomes a key player. India can’t afford to have another bad outing from him in what is a very important game for Gautam Gambhir and company. It’s now or never.
