The story behind the rise, dip, and revival of mystery leg-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy

“Leg-spinners and my type of bowlers…,” says India and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) spinner Varun Chakaravarthy in a chat over phone.

What’s his type? How would he describe himself as a bowler?

“Different from conventional leg-spinners, technique-wise. ‘Cause of my release point, and lesser use of the wrist.”

He’s been slotted as a mystery spinner. For a bowler who was claimed to possess seven different types of deliveries in 2018, he admits he bowls only four deliveries in the Indian Premier League (IPL): leg-break, googly, carrom ball, and the flipper.

His bowling hand looks the same at the point of release for his leg-break, googly, and carrom ball, so there is no giveaway for the batter.

Thus, it doesn’t come as a surprise that a whopping 93% of his wickets had come off his two variations (leg-break is seemingly his stock delivery) — googly (50%) and carrom ball (43%) — since IPL 2020 until a point in the second half of IPL 2021.

In this period, he was accurate enough to be economical, and pick up wickets.

He was also bowling quicker — as quick as higher than 100 kph. It reduces the reaction time for the batters — coming down the track is a hard thing to do.

Performance dip and revival

So, his dip in performance in 2022 came as a big surprise, and thus his return to his previous bowling best in 2023 is considered a revival.

Just what went wrong? Seems he was trying too much to be even more mysterious.

“Yes, that’s the main reason. I thought I had to bring in something new. I didn’t realise that what I had was already enough, I just had to work on my accuracy. But I started working on too many variations which indirectly impacted my stock delivery,” says Varun.

“I was trying side-arm, I was trying very low release point, and all those things. But it didn’t kind of work out.”

What’s more, he admitted he was also bowling slower.

He worked with his spin coach A.C. Prathiban and found a new way to impart speed on the ball — by imparting more revs on the ball.

“I initially thought that bowling quicker is enough. But I didn’t realise that more revs will do the trick. So, when I worked with Prathiban, I worked on more revs. It helped, yes. The ball speeds through both in the air and off the pitch.”

He’d also found a way to be more accurate by adjusting his release point.

“I worked on the accuracy part of it, which I worked through my release point. Higher release point now.”

He also surprisingly says he had different release points for the different deliveries he has, and that he’s made the release point similar now.

Even now he seemingly picks up a majority of his wickets with his variations — at one point in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2023, all his wickets had come off the googly.

While earlier it was because he was bowling a lot of variations than his stock delivery, now it is because he bowls a lot of leg-spinners that his variations have become that much more potent.

“Initially, I was not bowling much of leg-break. But from this season, I’ve started bowling more leg-break.

“I rely on my variations. But more than variation, accuracy is the key factor.”

Unreadable under lights

Another x-factor that Varun has is that his deliveries are harder to read off the seam in the night.

Especially for a bowler with no giveaway off his bowling hand, the batter may attempt to read the seam to know what the ball is going to do. Batters have said that it is hard to do that in the night. In IPL 2023, A.B. de Villiers spoke about it on the commentary — he specifically said that it is harder to do against Varun in the night.

There’s a reason for it. Varun is a cross-seam bowler.

“Yes, at night, it’s very tough to pick a conventional spinner who bowls on seam. So, it will be tougher to pick bowlers who bowl cross-seam. The white leather at night gets dirty with mud, grass, and dew. Hence, the seam kind of camouflages and it gets very tough to tell which side the ball is spinning.”

TNPL 2023 experience

In TNPL 2023, it seemed there were a lot of finger spinners, especially left-arm spinners. At one point, left-arm spinners had accounted for 53% (79) of the total spinners’ wickets (149).

Varun has an interesting answer.

“We play pre-dominantly on black soil wickets. So, in black soil wickets, people who can skid the ball, and who have sidespin, they do well. Finger spinners normally impart sidespin. Leg-spinners and my type of bowlers, they bowl more topspin. Topspin is not as effective on black soil as it is on red soil.

“So, if you see red soil wickets, leg-spinners are more effective there. For left-arm spinners, it’s a comparatively easier tournament (TNPL) because the wickets will assist them more.”

He played for Dindigul Dragons with R. Ashwin. Asked about Ashwin’s impact on him, he says: “Ashwin anna was there with us only for a short span, since he had to go to the West Indies. In that time, whatever I spoke, it was very tactical and definitely enlightening to me. Few points that he has, the minute changes of field and all those things really helped me. Other than that, he did keep a lot of trust in me and never called me for any spinners meeting especially. So, he had that faith in me.”

Muralitharan’s advice

Varun is often seen chatting with senior and legendary cricketers in IPL. He even becomes a fanboy and clicks photos with them.

Asked to recall something impactful from those chats, he says: “Dhoni has discussed more tactically. Muthiah Muralitharan told me that I have to work on my leg spin, that I have to turn it more. So, last year, I worked on that. And I did bring that into my game this season. I’m working on that more for the next season.”

Fitness and fielding

Asked about his fitness with reference to his past injuries, he says: “That’s part and parcel of life. Definitely, at some point it did affect my chances to play for the country. But now, I feel I’m kind of beyond injuries. I have trained well for the last one year. I feel fitter and fine.”

On his failing the Yo-Yo test in 2021, he says: “I’m working on my endurance and cardio. It’s constant work. Change is going to take time. I’ve definitely improved.”

Varun isn’t among the best fielders and he’s candid about it.

“From about three months before the IPL, I’ve been working a lot on my fielding as well. I won’t tell I’m the best fielder going around, but definitely if you see from last year, I’ve improved a lot. It’s all about taking baby steps each and every day, and each and every practice (session), and (the fielding) has improved a lot, that’s what people around me are telling. Hopefully, I can keep improving more.”

Varun took a brilliant diving catch at short third man versus Salem Spartans in the Tirunelveli leg of TNPL 2023.

‘Want KKR to lift the cup’

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming in IPL 2023 said that Varun was a net bowler with the franchise and that it hurts that CSK missed out on having him in the squad.

Responding to this, Varun said: “It was nice to hear from Fleming. CSK is an amazing franchise. It’s always a high pressure match playing against CSK. I love competing against them.

“But as of now, I’m very happy with KKR. I have a great bonding with everyone at KKR. The management has shown faith in me. I would want KKR to lift the cup this coming year.”