A tournament of two parts: Varun Chakaravarthy finished as the T20 World Cup’s joint-highest wicket-taker but, in the last five matches, conceded an alarming 11.84 runs per over.
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Kolkata Knight Riders’s Varun Chakaravarthy bowls during a practice session on the eve of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 cricket match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Kolkata, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
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Hot commodity: Samson, who delivered a masterpiece at the ICC T20 World Cup and won the Lead Actor honours, is primed to extend his purple patch in Chennai’s Yellow.
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India’s Abhishek Sharma plays a shot against England during the T20 Match at the Eden Garden in Kolkata on January 22, 2025.
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Varun Chakaravarthy wove his spin magic at the Eden Gardens — his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders’ backyard — and opener Abhishek Sharma cracked a blistering half-century as India thrashed England by seven wickets in the first of the five-match T20I series in Kolkata on Wednesday.

After restricting the visitor to a modest 132, the host rushed to the target in 12.5 overs, much to the joy of a packed house.

India was off to a rollicking start, plundering 63 in the PowerPlay despite losing two wickets to Jofra Archer in the fifth over.

Sanju Samson (26), who utilised his gift of timing to hammer 22 off Gus Atkinson’s first over, provided the ignition before ill-timing a pull. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav miscued one to the leg side.

The two blows could not deter Abhishek (79, 34b, 5×4, 8×6), who treated Mark Wood with disdain — hammering successive sixes over fine-leg and third-man and a straight four in the sixth over.

The southpaw used his feet well against spinner Adil Rashid. He hoisted Rashid over mid-wicket and long-on and Jamie Overton over fine-leg as he completed his half-century in just 20 deliveries. He fell to Rashid when the target was in sight.

Earlier, Mohammed Shami’s wait to return to international cricket got longer as Suryakumar chose to field three spinners amid speculation split over the pacer’s form and fitness, and India’s tactics.

With plenty of dew on the field and the prospect of the pitch playing slow and the ball skidding, India opted to field.

Arshdeep Singh extracted impressive seam movement and bowled in good areas to strike in quick succession. The third delivery of the match surprised Phil Salt even before he could open his account. Salt’s leading edge went miles up in the air before Samson calmly accepted the catch. In Arshdeep’s next over, Ben Duckett, looking to play on the onside, only managed to get a leading edge.

Rinku Singh, posted at cover, ran back to take a spectacular high catch and help Arshdeep become the country’s top wicket-taker in T20Is, overtaking Yuzvendra Chahal’s tally of 96 scalps.

Unperturbed, captain Jos Buttler (68, 44b, 8×4, 2×6) batted aggressively, choosing Hardik Pandya for special treatment, as he added 48 quick runs with Harry Brook.

Varun (three for 23) displayed his control over flight and spin to scalp two in his second over. Brook, who had problems in reading the spinner, played for the turn but inside-edged one onto his pads and the stumps. Liam Livingstone was also bowled in a similar fashion.

Hardik removed Jacob Bethell and Axar Patel claimed the wickets of Overton and Atkinson in consecutive overs. The wicketless Ravi Bishnoi kept it tight to apply more pressure.

The one-man show of Buttler — who showcased his range of shots and placement skills on both sides — ended as he pulled Varun to Nitish Reddy in the 17th over.

All this proved inconsequential once Abhishek took over.

India’s Varun Chakaravarthy celebrate the dismissal of South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen with Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya during the 2nd T20 match, at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Sunday
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Mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy has described the three-year gap from international cricket as “tough,” saying he had to completely overhaul his bowling after finding that his orthodox side-spin wasn’t working at higher levels.

The 33-year-old recorded his career-best figures of 5 for 17 in Sunday’s second T20I against South Africa, though his efforts could not prevent India from losing by three wickets.

“I had to go to the drawing board and check out all my videos. I figured out that I was bowling side spin and it was not working out in the higher levels,” he told Jio Cinema.

“I had to change everything about my bowling. It took me two years and I started bowling in the local leagues and IPL also. It worked there and I have started bowling it in the international stage and it’s working out for me.”

While side spin creates enough revolutions to make the ball drift sideways, over-spin generates a sharp bounce and turn.

Talking about what worked for him as he added a fifer on Sunday (November 10, 2024) to the three wickets he scalped in the first T20I in Durban, Chakaravarthy said: “It is a combination of both my consistency and overspin.

“The overspin I bowl has more bite from the pitch and hopefully I can keep doing that and hopefully I can keep contributing for the country.” Chakaravarthy was axed from the Indian team after going wicketless during the 2021 World Cup but he earned his place back after his exploits in the last two editions of the IPL. He snapped 20 wickets in IPL 2023 before finishing as the second highest wicket-taker this year.

“Definitely, the last three years were a little tough,” Chakaravarthy told media after the match.

“The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. And I started playing a lot of the domestic league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better. And that’s what helped me.”

Chakaravarthy was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL-winning team this year under Gambhir, who recently took over as the coach of the Indian team and he credited the role clarity provided by the coach for helping him to regain his lost form.

“Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he was coaching the team. And definitely we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity.

“He told me, even if you go for 30-40 runs, it doesn’t matter. All you have to look is to pick wickets. So that’s your role in the team. The clarity which they gave definitely helped me.”

Chakaravarthy’s match-changing spell reduced South Africa to 66 for 6 while chasing a modest target of 125, but a gritty partnership between Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) saw the hosts home in 19 overs, ending India’s 11-match winning streak.

“During the innings break, Surya (skipper Suryakumar Yadav) came and told us that let’s not think about the result and let’s just go all out. And that’s what we tried to do. We did our best and we could have pulled it off.”

“Obviously, the mindset has to be aggressive when the score is low. You have to pick wickets and that’s when we can win the match. That has to be my approach in the next two games also because it’s going to be a do-or-die match for us,” he said.

The spinner added that performing against a formidable team like South Africa would serve as a confidence booster heading into the remaining matches.

“Definitely, when we came to South Africa, we knew that it’s going to be a challenging tour because the Proteas, they are one of the best teams right now and they have a powerful batting lineup.

“Doing well against them definitely gives me motivation to do more better and definitely I can. Hopefully I can do well in the upcoming games.”

India will face South Africa in the third and final T20Is on Wednesday and Friday at Centurion and Johannesburg, respectively.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy celebrates the wicket of Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 cricket match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens, in Kolkata on May 11, 2024.
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Varun Chakaravarthy’s ability to be consistently among wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders drew praise from former Australian tearaway bowler Brett Lee, who said he made life difficult for Mumbai Indians batters in a rain-shortened low-scoring game.

Chakaravarthy bowled miserly and took two wickets for 17 runs as KKR won by 18 runs to become the first team to seal an IPL playoff berth on Saturday.

Chakaravarthy (18 scalps) is the third-highest wicket-taker so far this season behind MI’s Jasprit Bumrah and PBKS’s Harshal Patel, both of whom are on 20 wickets.

“He bowled beautifully. He made efforts to pick the hard length, he banged the ball short in the wicket which did not allow the batsmen to get underneath the ball and made the cross-bat shots difficult,” Lee told JioCinema on Sunday.

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru high-performance director Mike Hesson said KKR batter Venkatesh Iyer seems to be relishing punishing the Mumbai Indians bowlers.

Venkatesh has struck two half centuries this season and came close to striking a third before he was dismissed on 42 (21 balls) as he emerged the highest run-getter on both sides at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

“He seems to love playing against Mumbai Indians. He got hit on the knee earlier but that did not seem to stop him. He timed everything beautifully, batted with a strike rate of over 200 and when everybody else was struggling because of the seaming ball, he played a match-winning hand,” said Hesson.