The 27-year-old started playing the game at the age of 13 and was a wicket-keeper batsman until 17. (TNPL Twitter)Varun Chakravarthy first claim to fame was in during the 2018 Tamil Nadu Premier League when he spun Siechem Madurai Panthers to their maiden title. His second, and arguably the one that he would be remembered for, is that he was bought by Kings XI Punjab for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore at the 2019 IPL Auctions, making him the joint most expensive buy alongwith Jaydev Unadkat.
The 27-year-old started playing the game at the age of 13 and was a wicket-keeper batsman until 17. Several rejections in age-group cricket prompted him to switch career paths. He went on to pursue a degree in architecture at Chennai’s SRM University and worked as a freelance architect after that.
According to ESPNCricinfo, tennis-ball cricket is what rekindled his live for the sport. He went on to quite his job and give it another try.
He joined the CromBest Cricket Club as a seam-bowling allrounder but a knee injury he sustained relegated him to the bench. He then decided to switch to spin bowling. He conceded a lot of runs but that only prompted him to add more variations to his arsenal, thus giving him the label of ‘mystery spinner.’
Chakaravarthy says that his variations include the offbreak, legbreak, googly, carrom ball, flipper, topspin and a yorker length slider.
His abilities were on full display at TNPL 2018. Playing for Madurai, a team that had not won a single match before the 2018 season, he performed the roles of wicket-taker and one who restricts batsmen. He was especially lethal during the powerplay and slog overs.
He went on to make his debut for Tamil Nadu in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. He took 22 wickets in nine matches at an economy of 4.23. He subsequently made his Ranji Trophy debut for Tamil Nadu.
