Kolkata Knight Riders lead Indian spinner Varun Chakravarthy has revealed he sharpening his legbreak to surprise the batters in the remainder of the tournament.
It is not that Chakravarthy can’t take the ball away from the right-handers. The mystery spinner has regularly used the carrom ball in his Indian Premier League career. But the idea is to add a “new dimension” to his game after not taking as many wickets as he would like at the beginning of the new season.
Chakravarthy had taken 17 wickets from 13 matches in IPL 2020 and 18 wickets from 17 games in the 2021 season at 6.84 and 6.58 rpo, respectively. Two successive good campaigns and the mystery element to his bowling earned the spinner an India cap in the build-up to the T20 World Cup last year.
Falling out of reckoning since, however, Chakravarthy has also endured a dip in returns with KKR. He has taken only four wickets from his first five games of IPL 2022 at 7.30 rpo. To turn things around, he is keeping a realistic outlook around his mystery and trying to stay a step ahead of the batters.
“It is bound to happen, people will have plans against me. I am working on a new variation which I am looking forward to bowl more. If it starts clicking well it will definitely add a new dimension to my game.
“I am working on a legspin (variation). I have been working for it in the last two years. I have bowled in few matches and I have got a wicket out of that also. I need to be a little more confident (bowling the new variation) and start bowling it more,”
he said in an interview published on KKR’s website.
Second in the standings after five games with three wins, KKR next take the field on April 15 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
