India spinner Varun Chakravarthy says his T20 World Cup preparation is centred around backing his lengths, maintaining confidence and constantly challenging himself mentally even in matches that appear straightforward.

The 34-year-old has 51 wickets from 32 T20Is, including six wickets in the first three games of the ongoing five-match series against South Africa.

Chakravarthy is vital for India’s title defence at the World Cup, which is scheduled to be held from February 7 to March 8 in India and Sri Lanka.

“It is very important to keep putting pressure on yourself to get ready for the World Cup,” the Karnataka-born spinner said on ‘Follow The Blues’ on Jiohotstar. “You have to challenge yourself even when there is no challenge. If a match feels easy, you have to create that pressure mentally and start challenging yourself.

“Confidence, bowling the right lengths, and understanding the opposition are key. That is one major factor I want to take into the World Cup. With a better understanding of the opposition, I think I can do well,” he said.

Chakravarthy said sticking to the basics and trusting his skill-set have been the key to his recent success at the international level. “My plan is simple, stick to the basics and bowl my length. Sometimes it works, and thankfully in the last three matches, it has worked well. I will try the same in the next match,” he said.

India and South Africa are set to face off in the fifth and final T20I here on Friday (December 19, 2025).

“When you are not confident, your mindset affects your skill. The key is to stay confident and back your skills. That is when you execute well, without much change. That is the secret to being consistent,” he said.

“At this level, you must be consistent, playing at the highest level is important to know where you stand,” Chakravarthy said. “In my first match at the international level, I struggled a bit initially and that’s when I understood a few things. I went back to practice and made corrections. So, it is very important to keep playing at the highest level.”

India would hope that the challenging home assignment against South Africa, which has exposed a few chinks in the armour and thrown up difficult questions on selection, ends on a positive note when the two sides clash in the fifth and final T20 International in Ahmedabad on Friday (December 19, 2025) .

After being blanked 0-2 in the Tests, India bounced back to win the ODI series and now have an unassailable lead 2-1 in the T20Is after the fourth game was abandoned due to poor weather conditions in Lucknow on Wednesday (December 17, 2025).

That India cannot lose the series should be comforting to embattled head coach Gautam Gambhir given that the other two leaders in the camp — skipper Suryakumar Yadav and his deputy Shubman Gill — are battling challenges of their own with less than two months to go for the T20 World Cup.

For someone who was ranked world No. 1 not so long ago, Suryakumar’s form has sharply nosedived in the only format he is assured a place in the XI for India.

Having gone through 18 innings in 20 matches this year without a single half-century while averaging a poor 14.20 for his 213 runs, every failure for Suryakumar is adding to the concerns of the Indian camp.

Adding to it is the Gill conundrum

Gill’s return as vice-captain in the T20I format might have been perceived as one which put Suryakumar on notice a few months ago, but the former’s ordinary run with the bat since his comeback and the latest injury setback only hampers the team’s cause.

A toe injury suffered before the fourth T20I is set to keep Gill out of the final T20I here as India would want to take a cautious route, more so when there is a ready replacement for the top order slot in Sanju Samson.

Earlier, Gill had missed most of the two-Test affair following a injury to his neck which he suffered in the series-opener in Kolkata, something that also highlighted his busy schedule and growing list of responsibilities in Indian cricket across formats.

Samson was never the right fit in the lower order as the lowest he has batted apart from the top slot is at No.5, where the right-handed batter has scored a mere 138 runs in eight matches at an average of 23.

But each of his three T20I centuries and one half-century have come at the top slot in 14 innings, and in case of Gill’s unavailability for the final game, the Kerala wicketkeeper-batter would be keen to make it count.

Aside from this, India have a settled unit with both the all-rounders, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube, featuring in all three games so far. In the pace attack, Arshdeep Singh is coming into his elements and is also beginning to forge a partnership with Harshit Rana with the ball.

Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the third T20I due to personal reasons, joined the team’s camp before the fourth match.

A batting-friendly wicket here will pose a challenge to India’s best bowler in the T20I series, Varun Chakravarthy, who has taken 6 wickets so far.

For South Africa, who have blown hot and cold particularly with the bat in the T20I series, Friday’s (December 19, 2025) contest will be an opportunity to end with the satisfaction of drawing a series against India.

The Proteas could mull over bringing Aiden Markram back in the top order in place of Reeza Hendricks, who hasn’t found his rhythm on this tour.

But at the same time, the visitors would also want the young and dangerous Dewald Brevis to find his form after having ordinary outings in each of the three completed matches in the series.

South Africa have also missed aggressive knocks from Marco Jansen, which made the ODI series such a tightly-contested affair but to their credit, Lungi Ngidi and Ottneil Baartman have done a fair job with the ball.

At a loss to explain South Africa’s capitulation in the series-opener, their batting coach Ashwell Prince said the visitors simply failed to answer the questions posed by India’s “formidable” bowlers while being dismissed for their lowest T20I total of 74 in Cuttack.

Chasing 176, South Africa folded in 12.3 overs in a 101-run defeat in the opening match of the five-match series that marked the beginning of the two sides’ build-up towards the global showpiece in India and Sri Lanka from February 7.

“Obviously after a batting performance as such, that is one department that we will have to improve on quickly,” Prince said at the post-match media interaction at the Barabati Stadium, here on Tuesday.

“I thought the Indian bowlers, quite a formidable bowling attack, asked a lot of good questions. Ultimately, as a batting unit, we’re not able to answer the questions. Tonight we weren’t up to the task.”

The two-paced wicket with the odd one rearing up also troubled the South African batters as Indian bowlers exploited the conditions beautifully.

Prince said the bounce should not be an excuse as they are used to playing on lively wickets back home.

“I think any score that you keep to under 180 in T20 cricket is a chaseable score absolutely. There was a bit of bounce, it seemed like, but being South Africans, we should be accustomed to bounce.

“As I said, the Indian bowlers asked a lot of good questions. Ultimately, we weren’t able to answer,” he said blaming the batting unit.

The decision to bowl first after winning the toss seemed to have backfired but Prince said they did well to keep India’s total in check.

“I thought the pitch was good. Not every pitch that you bat on is supposed to be a 220 pitch,” he said.

India also had their share of struggles and kept losing wickets before Pandya’s late heroics lifted them to 175/6.

“They had to work hard for the first part of the innings. Then, obviously Hardik came in and played a brilliant knock to give them a competitive score.

“I don’t think in any cricket match you can decide at the halfway stage if you have a winning score. But what you can do is put up a competitive score and obviously it turned out to be enough.”

All praise for Pandya’s comeback fifty, Prince said the all-rounder is a calm six-hitter and his clarity in execution stood out once again.

“Hardik obviously played an outstanding innings. I think we have to give him a lot of credit. He has come back from an injury.

“He has come back looking sharp. He picked the right moments to attack with a spin on initially. There wasn’t a lot of spin on offer so he got a couple of early sixes away,” Prince acknowledged.

“Against the seamers towards the end, he put the pressure on to them. He struck the ball as cleanly as ever so a lot of credit has to go to him.”

Clarity in shot-execution was the key to Hardik’s success, felt Prince.

“He is a six-hitter but he is also calm. I think identifying the right balls to attack comes with a lot of experience. As soon as the ball was in areas that he is very strong at, he put a good swing on it, no half measures.

“I think most of the time when Hardik hits it, he is not tentative. There is clarity in his thinking and there is clarity in his execution. It was an outstanding innings.”