Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s performance in the 1st T20I against England marks his strongest comeback in the shortest format of the game. The T20 match at Eden Gardens was the first test for both the teams before their Champions Trophy ICC tournament next month. No one would have thought India would bowl out the Englishmen for 132 in 20 Overs.
Arshdeep Singh took the wicket of Phil Salt using his pace and bounce in the 3rd ball of the game. And, took one more wicket within the powerplay. But, a great partnership was budding between Harry Brook and skipper Jos Buttler. Hardik and Axar got hit for fours and sixes respectively. That’s when skipper Suryakumar Yadav decided to add some spice with Varun Chakravarthy.
Though he was wicketless in the first over, he slided two beautiful deliveries in the 8th over of the match & ripped off Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone and flicked off their stumps in his second over. Due to Varun’s terrific performance, Suryakumar Yadav brought in Ravi Bishnoi to join the spinner’s party. He remained wicketless but maintained an economy of below 6. Spinners truly exposed the weakness of the English batting strategy.
Buttler hit Varun Chakravarthy for a six over in the 17th over the long on boundary but the very next he got out due to an unbelievable catch in the deep by Nitish Kumar Reddy. He gave his 100% in the field, leaving no balls to reach the boundary and remained crucial in those two fantastic catch dismissals.
As Buttler walked to the pavilion as the 8th wicket, Varun and his fellow teammates had already done the damage.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s Prediction: Varun Chakravarthy vs England
Before the match began, Ravichandran Ashwin, former spin stalwart of India gave his two cents about the whole series. He said Varun would be a crucial factor and if England struggled to play Varun Chakravarthy’s spell then it would become difficult for the visitors to win a match. That’s exactly what happened in today’s match.
He took 3 wickets for 23 and took the important wicket of England’s captain to secure the victory for India. Thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s incredible 79 and Sanju’s quick-fire innings which matched the mystery spinner’s outstanding bowling effort in the field.
India is now one up and Varun has become the new nightmare for the batters of England. They need to find a way to deal with the devil. Otherwise, Varun will be the winter for the Englishmen.
Varun is proving to be a nightmare!