Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) spinner Varun Chakaravarthy addressed his recent struggles by asserting that he "wasn't making any mistakes" and instead attributed it to unhelpful pitches that offered nothing for tweakers.
While he enjoyed a highly successful tournament overall, finishing as the joint-leading wicket-taker alongside Jasprit Bumrah with 14 scalps each, Chakaravarthy’s form notably dipped in the latter stages as he managed only five wickets from last five matches from the Super 8.
The struggles continued in IPL 2026, as he went for 48 runs in their campaign opener against Mumbai Indians and had to wait four matches for his first wicket this season.
“Bowlers will concede runs. Which game are you talking about?” Chakaravarthy replied when specifically asked about his dip in form starting from the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8s.
Following his match-winning figures of 3/14 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Eden Gardens on Sunday (April 19), Chakaravarthy maintained that there were no issues with his bowling.
“Just because I've taken three wickets today, I don't want to make a sweeping statement. That's the nature of the game. In the next match, if the wicket has nothing in it, that's going to happen to every spinner. As you saw, initially every spinner was struggling. That's how it is.”
“Once the pitches start slowing down, that's when we come into the game and become more effective. So it's the nature of the game and we can't change it. I don't think much about it.”
Chakaravarthy stressed that he wasn’t committing any mistakes as he responded to the criticism of his underwhelming show.
“I wasn't making any mistakes -- it was because of the pitches. I'm very tough on myself; if I don't do well, I analyse what went wrong.”
“But the pitches earlier had nothing for spinners. If you see other spinners, it was the same for everyone. It's good that there is something in the pitch now.”
Varun Chakaravarthy stated that spinners only become effective when conditions assist them as he cautioned against quick judgments.
“Once there is something in the pitch, I go back to my strength --- attacking the stumps. But if there is nothing in the pitch, that's when bowlers start getting confused, even look clueless, and that happens to everyone.
“It has happened to the best of the best. So no one should be judged on just one good or bad performance.”
Chakaravarthy denied tinkering with his pace or lengths under pressure, citing that his speed and length remained consistent.
“My speed has been the same. I haven't changed anything in speed or length," he said. “I've only tweaked my lines a bit... more cramping lines, not just the fourth stump channel but also wider on off or leg. I'm not sticking only to the stumps.”
It was KKR’s first win of the season after seven outings. Crediting head coach Abhishek Nayar for shielding the players from what he termed “outside noise”, Chakaravarthy revealed there were emotional scenes in the dressing room.
“Very, very significant. I can tell you I saw many tears in the dressing room today, which we didn't even see in the year we won the IPL in 2024,” he said.
“The main credit goes to the coaching staff because they didn't let the outside noise affect us. There were too many people making judgments which were totally baseless. At such times, you need a strong core, and we have that.”
He also attributed the team's poor start to injury-related struggles. “We started this tournament with many injuries and it actually crippled us even before it began. So I would like to give credit to the coaches, especially Abhishek Nayar.
“If you're taking up a team in such conditions, you need a lot of courage. He has taken up the team in a very tough situation. Slowly, step by step, one win here, one win there, we will be back on track.”
(With PTI Inputs)
