Varun Chakravarthy reveals to be nervous before playing against New Zealand in the ongoing Champions Trophy. It was his debut match in the tournament and the star spinner clinched a five-wicket haul and was adjudged Player of the Match.
Varun Chakravarthy clinched a scintillating five-for in India’s Champions Trophy match against New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium. The spin wizard didn’t feature in the playing XI against Bangladesh and Pakistan but against the Kiwis, he replaced Harshit Rana, as India relied heavily on their spin attack.
The Men in Blue had a tough time with the bat as they posted only 249 runs on the board. In the second innings, New Zealand were in the hunt to chase it down, but Chakravarthy wreaked havoc to spoil their party. His five-for restricted the Mitchell Santner-led side to 205 runs as India registered a 44-run win and with that, they moved to the top of Group A.
Chakravarthy was eventually adjudged Player of the Match. During the post-match presentation, the cricketer noted he was nervous in the initial stage and the senior cricketers such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya motivated him during the innings. He also revealed that it was last night when he found out about playing the match against New Zealand.
“First of all I did feel nervous in the initial stages. I have not played many matches for India in the ODI format but as the game went on I felt better. Virat, Rohit, Shreyas and Hardik were talking to me and that helped. (on when he knew he was playing this game) I found out last night. I was definitely expecting to play for the country but on the other side I was nervous. It was not a rank turner, but if you bowled in the right places it was giving help. The way Kuldeep, Jaddu and Axar bowled, even the pace bowlers, it was a total team effort,” Chakravarthy said.
Notably, the 33-year-old also became the bowler with the second-best figure on debut in the Champions Trophy. Josh Hazlewood tops the list with 6/52 against New Zealand in Edgbaston in 2017.