Kolkata Knight Riders’ mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy gave credit to the team’s coaching staff to not let the outside noise affect them after they could not get a win in the first five matches of IPL 2026. The three-time champions finally got their maiden win of the season when they defeated Rajasthan Royals by four wickets at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday.

Chakravarthy himself was traveling as he was not able to make an impact in the middle overs. The 34-year-old also had a tough T20 World Cup but on Sunday, he was at his best. 

He returned with impressive figures of 3-14 in his quota of four overs against RR as he accounted for Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, playing a key role in restricting the opposition at 155-9. Thus, Chakravarthy was awarded Player of the Match for his fine show.

Chakravarthy said in the post-match press conference, “The main credit has to go to the coaching staff because they didn’t let the outside noise affect us. Because there were too many people floating around with judgments, which were totally baseless. So, at such times you need a very strong core that supports you.”

The mystery spinner added he doesn’t want to make a sweeping statement and the spinners would be more effective once the pitches start getting slower.

He said, “Look, just because I’ve taken three wickets today, I don’t want to make a sweeping statement and all. That’s the nature of the game. Next match, if the wicket has nothing in it, that’s going to happen [conceding more runs] to every spinner. As you can see, initially [in the tournament] every spinner was traveling. So that’s how it is.

“Once the pitches start slowing down, that’s how we start coming into the game and we start being more effective,” the 34-year-old added.

KKR will next take on Lucknow Super Giants at Lucknow on Sunday.