India's mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy feels that his partnership with fellow spinner Kuldeep Yadav is critical and they complement each other well and hope to recreate the magic at the T20 World Cup as well. Chakravarthy was speaking to on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards on Tuesday.
"So, Kuldeep is definitely one of the most experienced bowlers right now in the pool of players that we have and he has done amazingly well and we kind of complement each other because I bowl at the speeds of 95 km per hour and he bowls around 85 km per hour, so we kind of complement each other and he has more revs and more turn, I have more speed and bounce, so till now it's been working well for us. Hopefully, we can do the same thing what we have been doing in the World Cup also," he added.
Elaborating on his success in the Asia Cup final, Chakravarthy felt playing Pakistan twice in the tournament before the summit clash certainly helped.
"Ofcourse, we do plan before the match itself and before that we had played the opponent for two times, so we had a fair idea of what their plans could be and what they will come up with and we also had our own plans and yeah, finally we did well and yeah."
Talking about the secret of his bowling success, Chakravarthy felt the pitches were definitely of some help for them.
"Yeah, if you see the pitches in Dubai, they have worked well towards me, even in the Champions Trophy I did well there, so they are a little on the slower side, so that kind of helps me more and... Other than that, my role was to just keep on attacking the stumps and keep on challenging the batsmen to hit me for a six or something, take an aggressive option against me so that I can take a wicket, that was the basic plan.
"He brings a Spartan mentality" - Varun Chakravarthy on Gautam Gambhir
Talking about his working relationship with Gautam Gambhir, Chakravarthy felt the familiarity of having worked with the India coach is a plus point.
"I have already worked with him in the IPL and we won that IPL, so nothing new to me because I have already been around him. But definitely one thing which I can say about him is he brings a Spartan mentality to the team where there is no option of losing, you just have to bring your best and give everything on the ground and later on, whatever happens, happens. But when he is around, there is no mediocrity, you can't be mediocre in the field, that's what I feel.
Chakravarthy revealed that despite all the off-field distractions that were going around during the Asia Cup, the team's only goal was to win the trophy which they eventually did.
"Sir, I don't know about others but our primary goal when we landed there was to win the cup only, not to look at other things. Our focus was always to win the cup and win all the sides and go unbeaten in the tournament so that we can feel more stronger in the World Cup. If you ask me what I saw is almost all the players switched off their social media accounts only when they had to post something after the match they just came. But none of them actually, because we were in another country, maybe I don't know how it was there in India right now at that time, but in UAE it was just all quiet, there was no hush-hush at all."
When asked about his performance and presence in the Champions Trophy winning squad, Chakravarthy stated that he expected to be there.
"Brother, I expect to be in every team but it's up to the selectors to think what they are thinking. Maybe the pitchers there offer less chance. If you see in the Champions Trophy also I was brought in as a replacement for Yashaswi as well. So it just depends on the conditions. I can't feel anything but what the pitchers demand is totally our thing."
Chakravarthy also opined that he didn't try anything different at the Asia Cup apart from changing the sequence of balls.
"Sir, as you told it just goes three ways. Left, right or straight. It just depends on me when I want to take it on the other side. It just depends on the sequence of balls. Am I going to bowl two leg spin and one googly or two googly's and one leg spin. So that's the only thing I can change. Other than that I can't change much."
The spinner feels it's not easy to keep the mystery element intact when the opponents analyse your bowling through videos.
"Look, the sports science and sports analytics has gone way beyond. So even if I play one match, everything, something I do new, it just comes out in the video. But at the end of the day, the batsman still has to middle the ball and hit it for a six."
