Former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has said that India should look at Varun Chakravarthy ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, mentioning that Yuzvendra Chahal has begun to stagnate as a bowler.
Yuzvendra Chahal used to be India’s go-to spinner in white-ball formats for a while now but has had average returns since the ICC World Cup 2019. The spinner had leaked more than six runs an over in ODIs and more than nine runs an over in T20Is last year.
Varun Chakravarthy had an impressive outing in IPL 2020. He picked 17 wickets in 13 matches with an economy of under seven. He was decent in the first half of IPL 2021 as well, before the tournament was postponed owing to the pandemic.
“There is a possibility (of Varun being in the T20 World Cup India squad) because we’ve seen that over the years, Yuzvendra Chahal has not been very successful. Kuldeep has been out of the side, doesn’t even play for KKR. So what you have to look for is unknown commodities," Laxman Sivaramakrishnan said in a press conference arranged by Sony Network.
The former cricketer said that the Tamil Nadu spinner must focus on his fitness and fielding if he wants to cement his place in the Indian team.
“He has had a problem with injuries, he should maintain his fitness and pick up confidence from this tour. If he does that, he should be one of the candidates the team should look for. Because change is the only constant. When a person stagnates, when one of your main bowlers like Chahal stagnates, you should look at other options,” he said.
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When asked whether fitness tests like the yo-yo test could be done away with for players like Varun Chakravarthy, he said that the rules cannot be different for different players and he has to work on his fitness.
“Really up to the team management. You can’t have different rules for different people. Ideally, you want good fielders, that’s why the yo-yo tests are done so that people are quick on the field. More so for a batsman to convert 1s to 2s… when you bat with Virat Kohli, you have to run fast. Same with bowlers,” he added.
“Varun is not particularly good with the bat. In two of the three departments, you have to be good. He has to work really hard on his fielding if he wants to wear Indian blues,” he continued.
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan said that the stagnation of Yuzvendra Chahal is because the batsmen have figured out how to play the leg spinner.
“Technically he has to add more variety to his bowling. Your success in international cricket, in the one or two first years, you’ll have a lot of success. But over time they’ll find you out. With modern-day technology, analysis is very easy. All you need is a good person to spot out what deliveries he bowls," he said.
"He bowls leg stump line most of the time, and he’s not a big turner of the ball. The success he had in IPL a couple of years ago was when he would bowl outside off and force the batsman to reach out. If you bowl leg stump line, the batsman just has to pick the length and hit through the line." He concluded.
(Inputs: News 18)
