Varun Chakravarthy's back-to-back bowling exploits earned him a spot in India's Champions Trophy 2025 squad. Right ahead of India's Champions Trophy 2025's campaign opener against Bangladesh, captain Rohit Sharma kept the opponent teams guessing about India's Varun Chakravarthy move for the Champions Trophy.
Varun Chakravarthy doesn't bowl in nets: Rohit Sharma
On being asked about Chakravarthy during the pre-match press conference on February 19, Rohit came up with a hilarious response. While acknowledging the mystery spinner's impressive show, Rohit said Chakravarthy doesn't bowl in the nets.
"Varun Chakravarti has been impressive, he doesn’t bowl in nets with much variation, I think he is keeping it a secret (laughs)," Rohit said in the pre-match press conference.
The Tamil Nadu spinner was a standout performer in the recent T20I series against England where he took 14 wickets in five innings to be adjudged the Player of the series. His impressive show with the bowl catapulted him to India's ODI squad for England series, which the Men in Blue won 3-0. His strong form is backed by his performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy last month, where he was the second-highest wicket-taker, claiming 18 wickets in six innings at an impressive average of 12.16. In his List A career for Tamil Nadu, he has 59 wickets in 23 games at an average of 21.15, including three five-wicket hauls. One of these came in the team's Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final against Rajasthan in Vadodara.
Despite his impressive record, India's selection of four spinners for the Champions Trophy presents a challenge. It will be interesting to see whether the 33-year-old makes it to India's playing XI.
Rohit was also questioned about India's team combination. He bluntly said he is not looking it as two spinners and three-all rounders as Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar provide the team a lot of depth in batting.
“We have two spinners and three all-rounders. I am not looking at them as five spinners. Jadeja, Axar, and Washi (Washington Sundar) give us a lot of depth. “Many other teams carry six pacers when they have pace-bowling all-rounders. No one says they have one pacer too many. That’s their strength, and we focus on our strengths,” Rohit concluded.
India's squad for Champions Trophy:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.