Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy shed light on his bond with former India ball tweaker Ravichandran Ashwin. He also revealed why captain Rohit Sharma said he doesn’t bowl too many variations to the Indian batters during nets sessions. Ashwin and Chakravarthy spent time in the same dressing room at Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2024. Before India’s final group stage match against New Zealand, Ashwin prophesied that Chakravarthy would replace Harshit Rana, which eventually came true.

After lifting India to a 44-run victory with his match-winning figures of 5/42 against the Kiwis, the 33-year-old opened up about his bond with the former Indian spinner.

“For the first question, yes, I’ve spoken to him (Ashwin) during our TNPL times. I play for his team. I do have some conversations with him at those times. And yeah, he’s been a well-wisher for me,” he said in the pre-match press conference.

Before India’s tournament opener against Bangladesh, Rohit had said that Chakravarthy doesn’t “bowl a lot of variations” in the nets. Rohit said that Chakravarthy “bowls only one kind of variety” to them.

Chakravarthy offered an explanation behind the Indian skipper’s statement and said, “But in T20, I build my over differently. The way of sequencing different balls is different. And in ODI, it is different. So that’s why they don’t feel that I don’t bowl all the variations, but I do bowl all the variations.”

Before weaving his magic and scripting India’s victory, Chakravarthy revealed he felt “nervous” as the echoes of the past still lingered in his mind. In the T20 World Cup 2021, Chakravarthy was brought into India’s squad but flopped miserably.

He was able to banish his past away with seniors Rohit, Virat Kohli, and Hardik Pandya, who constantly reminded him to stay calm throughout his spell.

“And yeah, of course, the first spell of mine, I was a little nervous because the previous things, the emotions, and all were playing whatever happened in the last three years before in this ground. Where little bit it was playing with me and I was trying to keep it down, control it. But Virat bhai, Rohit and even Hardik, they were telling calm down, calm down. They were coming and talking to me. That really helped,” he said.

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