Mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy on Sunday (November 10) spoke about his absence from international cricket for three years, calling it a 'tough' period and attributed his current form to domestic grind and clarity of role provided by new head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Chakaravarthy returned with the career-best figures of 5 for 17 in his four overs during India’s second T20I against South Africa in Gqeberha on Sunday (November 10).
"Definitely, the last three years were a little tough," Chakaravarthy said. "The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. And I started playing a lot of the domestic league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better. And that's what helped me."
Varun Chakaravarthy was part of the KKR set-up that clinched the IPL title last season under the mentorship of Gambhir, who was then appointed head coach of the Indian team.
The 33-year-old said Gambhir gave him role clarity during the Bangladesh T20I series last month, helping him regain form.
"Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he was coaching the team. And definitely we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity.
"He told me, even if you go for 30-40 runs, it doesn't matter. All you have to look is to pick wickets. So that's your role in the team. And yeah, the clarity which they gave definitely helped me."
Chakaravarthy’s sensational spell reduced the Proteas to 66/6 in the chase of 125, but Tristan Stubbs (47*) and Gerald Coetzee (19*) held their nerves to take the hosts over the line with three wickets in hand and an over to spare.
Varun revealed that during the innings break, skipper Suryakumar Yadav urged the team to focus on giving their all without thinking about the result.
"During the innings break, Surya (skipper) came and told us that let's not think about the result and let's just go all out. And that's what we tried to do. We did our best and we could have pulled it off.
"Obviously, the mindset has to be aggressive when the score is low. You have to pick wickets and that's when we can win the match. That has to be my approach in the next two games also because it's going to be a do-or-die match for us," he said.
Varun feels performing well against a top team like South Africa will give him confidence going forward.
"Definitely, when we came to South Africa, we knew that it's going to be a challenging tour because the Proteas, they are one of the best teams right now and they have a powerful batting lineup.
"Doing well against them definitely gives me motivation to do more better and definitely I can. Hopefully I can do well in the upcoming games."
India and South Africa will now square off in the third T20I in Centurion on Wednesday (November 13).
