Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinner Varun Chakravarthy admitted the ongoing Indian Premier League is different with batters adopting an ultra-aggressive approach and scores of more than 200 becoming a norm. Chakravarthy, who wasn’t at his best in the last couple of matches, got the job done for his team against Delhi Capitals at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Monday.
The mystery spinner made the most of his guile to return with impressive figures of 3-16 in his quota of four overs. Chakravarthy accounted for DC captain Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, and Kumar Kushagra in his fine spell.
KKR had failed to defend a huge score of 262 runs against PBKS but they were able to restrict DC to a below-par score of 153 runs after Pant won the toss and decided to bat first.
“The last two matches before this, we didn’t defend that well,” Varun admitted. “Because the wickets have become very placid in the second innings and definitely the fact that we got to bowl in the first innings was good. The pitch was also a little helpful.
“The other pitches have also been slow but this pitch was a little bit more turning. That was the difference. The length is basically the same for all the matches. It’s just how the wicket behaves. In other matches, it was not giving this much help but this wicket gave and helped our bowlers.”
Chakravarthy was taken for 46 runs in the three overs he bowled against PBKS and revealed that the support staff helped him in getting his act back together.
“The last match was a very hard pill to swallow,” Varun said. “We had many conversations with the management, we spoke with the coaches Carl Crowe, Bharat Arun sir, Gambhir, Chandrakant sir, Abhishek Nair; everyone chipped in. We came up with many tactics. Even Shah Rukh bhai, he came up to us yesterday and spoke to me lot about… [he said] ‘don’t take it personally, whatever is happening this IPL is just going at a crazy rate, just don’t self doubt yourself’.
“It was a good performance from my side also and the last game was helpful.”
Like many others, Varun feels the Impact player rule has played a huge role in big totals of IPL 2024.
“I feel like I have been doing my processes well only but if you see the results, last match and before that, it was not out there. We have to accept that this IPL is different and we have to mentally accept the challenge,” Varun said.
“Last year the Impact Player rule was also there. The main thing is that teams have now understood how to better use the impact player this season. So they all know that there is extra batting and they want to charge from the first ball. And that’s how it’s going. However much the bowlers cry, that’s how it is. We have to take up the challenge. You can’t change the side of the ground or you can’t change anything.”
Kolkata Knight Riders will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.
