Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli feels Varun Chakravarthy is going to be a key factor when he plays for India.
Chakravarthy has a plethora of variations under his repertoire and he could be an X-factor in the upcoming T20 World Cup for the Indian team.
The mystery spinner from Tamil Nadu was at his absolute best at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Monday as returned with impressive figures of 3-13 in his four overs against RCB. Chakravarthy got the wickets of Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Sachin Baby to peg RCB on the backfoot.
The 30-year old spinner was at his best as he was right on the money. The pitch was on the slow side and Chakravarthy bamboozled the opposition batsmen with his variations. The mystery spinner got the big wicket of Glenn Maxwell, who tried to play a big shot but failed to make a connection.
Chakravarthy didn’t offer any width to the batsmen and the spinner played a key role in skittling RCB at a paltry score of 92 runs after Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bat first.
Virat Kohli said at the post-match presentation, “Pretty good, that’s exactly what I was saying in the dug-out, Varun going to be a key factor when he plays for India. We need to see performances like these from all the youngsters so that the bench strength of Indian cricket stays strong. And, he’s someone who is going to play in the near future for India and it’s a great sign”.
On the other hand, RCB were folded for their fifth-lowest total in the IPL. The Virat Kohli-led team was 41-2 at the end of the powerplay overs but then collapsed like a pack of cards as they lost wickets in a cluster.
Kohli added it is a bit of a wake-up call for his team, who have got off to a decent start in the season.
Kohli added, “It was important to get a good partnership on this surface. We honestly didn’t expect that much dew to kick in so early, we couldn’t have predicted that. It looked like a good wicket to bat on first up. We were 42-odd for one and then lost about five wickets within 20 runs from there, which is a very difficult situation to come back from. Bit of a collapse there for us, bit of a wake-up call and might as well have this at the start of the second leg so that we know exactly what we need to work on”.
RCB will next face CSK at Sharjah on 24th September.
