India mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy named batting great Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and most recently young batter Abhishek Sharma as the toughest batter he bowled to. Chakravarthy further stated that Abhishek, his teammate in the Asia Cup 2025, should be encouraged to play aggressively only for India and not for his franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Varun Chakravarthy for toughest batters
Abhishek is currently in the form of his life in the T20Is. He was adjudged the Player of the tournament at the recently concluded 2025 Asia Cup for his batting exploits.
“Chris Gayle, Virat, and, of late, Abhishek Sharma. You should tell Abhishek next time to try to be soft on the bowlers. Let him bat like this for India, not for SRH,” Chakaravarthy said on “Breakfast with Champions”.
Chakravarthy for Jasprit Bumrah
Chakravarthy, who is an avid chess fan, compared pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah with Chess legend Magnus Carlsen in cricket. He also admitted that while things were going well for him, at present, he still had some work to do to be as good as the likes of Sunil Narine and Rashid Khan.
“I follow chess now. When Gukesh won the championship, he told I might be the World Champion right now, but everyone knows Magnus Carlsen is the number one player. So I might be ranked number one, but the number one is always Jasprit Bumrah. There are Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan. I am doing well, but still some time to go before I can reach that stage,” he said.
Varun Chakravarthy's bowling performances
Varun Chakravarthy has played four ODIs and 24 T20Is since making his international debut in 2021. The bowler made his comeback featuring in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after facing a lot of criticism for his performance in the 2021 T20 World Cup. He was part of India's ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad and the Asia Cup 2025 winning squad. Chakravarthy has picked up 10 wickets in four ODIs and 40 wickets in his 24 T20I outings. Chakravarty will now be seen featuring in the five-match T20I series against Australia, which is scheduled to start from October 29.
India’s T20I squad vs Australia
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.