On Saturday, the Kolkata Knight Riders handed the Delhi Capitals their second defeat in a row after a brilliant performance from their bowler Varun Chakravarthy.
Varun Chakravarthy has been the frontline spinner for the Kolkata team in the current edition of the Indian Premier League ahead of the experienced Kuldeep Yadav. Chakravarthy was brought in as the mystery spinner to back the spin duo of Kuldeep and Sunil Narine. However, in this season, in the absence of Narine and Kuldeep, Chakravarthy has come to his own in leading the attack. On Saturday’s game, he bagged 5 wickets for just 20 runs in his 4 overs.
Who Is Varun Chakravarthy?
Born in Karnataka’s Bidar, Varun Chakravarthy began playing cricket at the age of 13. Until he was 17, he was a wicketkeeper-batsman. While pursuing a degree in architecture at the SRM University in Chennai, he continued his passion for cricket by playing tennis-ball cricket. After his degree, he worked as a freelance architect but later quit his job and joined the CromBest Cricket Club as a seam-bowling allrounder. However, a knee injury forced him to quit seam bowling and opted for a spin bowler.
His Rise In Cricket League
Varun Chakravarthy was signed by the Jubilee Cricket Club in the fourth division of the Chennai league where he picked 31 wickets in seven games with an impressive average of 8.26 and boggling economy of 3.06.
In the 2018 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, he took his team Siechem Madurai Panthers to their maiden title. Before the league, he was seen in the nets of Chennai Super Kings. Two weeks after he bowled in the CSK nets, the then captain of Kolkata Knight Riders Dinesh Karthik and a team analyst AR Srikkanth called him to bowl in the KKR nets.
After seeing him in the nets, he was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the next auction. While his base price was 20 lakhs, he was picked at a whopping price of 8.4 crore rupees.
Source: ESPN Cricinfo
