Varun Chakravarthy's emotional rollercoaster

Varun Chakravarthy comes across as a man of few words and fewer emotions. At pre- or post-match chats in the IPL, the broadcasters have to work hard to extract words from him. In a world where many bowlers have signature celebrations - think Imran Tahir's run to the boundary, Kevin Sinclair's somersault, or Tabraiz Shamsi's shoe-call - Varun's is hard to recall.

But after his 3 for 31 against Bangladesh in the first T20I in Gwalior, Varun confessed to being emotional. Representing India after three years, he said: "It feels like a rebirth."

Those who have worked with Varun closely say he is "intense and takes things very seriously". The world saw a glimpse of it in June. After being left out of India's T20I squad for the five-match series in Zimbabwe, he took to Instagram to share his frustration: "I wish I had a paid PR agency!!!!!!"

Varun had last played for India in 2021, so it might seem he was nowhere in the picture. But this was India's second-string squad, picked right after the T20 World Cup. A cycle had completed and the selectors were keen to try fresh faces. Many, including Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Tushar Deshpande, were rewarded for their stellar performances in IPL 2024.

Varun had an equally compelling case. He was the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 21 scalps in 15 games, playing a key role in Kolkata Knight Riders' title run. In a tournament where the overall economy was 9.56, he was frugal at 8.04. A season before that, he had taken 20 wickets in 14 games at an economy of 8.14. His frustration, therefore, was understandable.

Varun had made his T20I debut for India in 2021. After only three games, he was named in India's squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup. It was probably a horses-for-courses selection: the World Cup was in the UAE, and Varun had done well there during IPL 2020 and 2021.

Ravi Shastri, then India's coach, said on air during Sunday's match that he felt Varun was "a tad nervous". In the three games at the World Cup, he could not take a single wicket. And after a poor IPL next year, he found himself in the wilderness.

There were questions about his fitness, one-dimension-ness, and his mystery being unravelled. But Varun worked on himself. He tinkered with his run-up, tweaked his action, and improved his legbreak. In the last two IPL seasons, no one has taken more wickets than him.

All that finally bore fruit when he was selected for the Bangladesh T20Is. Gautam Gambhir, KKR's mentor last IPL and now India's head coach, might have had a role in his selection. Either way, Varun did not let him down.

Introduced in the fifth over, Varun started with a googly. He could have picked up the wicket of Towhid Hridoy with his second ball but debutant Reddy, running in from deep square leg, lost sight of the ball. Not only did he drop the catch but also let the ball go for four. Varun's emotions were once again on display as he tried to cover his face with his hands.

The next ball was too short and Hridoy pulled it behind square for another boundary. Adding more insult to the injury, Najmul Hossain Shanto reverse-swept the last ball of the over for a flat six. It could have been a fairy-tale comeback for Varun. Instead, his figures at that time read 1-0-15-0.

"The catch could have gone my way, but that's how T20 cricket is played," he said. "I felt even the reverse sweep was off a good ball, but it went for a six. So that's how it is. It's all mixed emotions."

Varun did not have to wait long, however. In his next over, Hridoy attempted another pull. This too was a short ball, but the 98.9kph speed meant it hurried the batter, resulting in an easy catch to long-on.

By now, it was clear that the Bangladesh batters were not able to pick his variations. With another googly, he breached Jaker Ali's defence. In his final over, he had Rishad Hossain top-edging a fast legbreak to deep midwicket to register his best figures in T20Is.

"It has been a long three years," Varun said of his comeback. "Whenever there was a series, I would keep thinking why my name was not there. That kind of motivated me, and I felt I should not leave it like this; I should go all out and try to make a comeback. So I started playing a lot of domestic games and started giving importance to those. All the matches I played was with full intensity. I never thought if it was a lower level or higher level."

During this time, Varun's family was his biggest support. "They have been through this [with me]; they have been facing all my adverse emotions," he said. "Other than that, everyone at the Tamil Nadu cricket board, my TNPL team Dindigul Dragons and the IPL team KKR backed me so that I could keep improving my skills.

"I used to be a side-spin bowler, but now I have completely shifted to be an over-spin bowler. It is a minute technical aspect of spin bowling and took me more than two years to make the shift. Slowly, slowly I was testing it in the TNPL and then the IPL."

This performance, though, does not mean Varun has cemented his place in the side. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are India's first-choice spinners. Apart from that, there is Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar. But Varun sees this as a healthy competition.

"There is good competition and there is good camaraderie also. One person who was cheering me today was Ravi Bishnoi. He was coming in and passing me messages, so I can't ask for more. And it's actually good to have such competition so that we keep pushing each other. Someone will be better than others at one point in time and he will definitely get the Cup for India. So this competition is very much needed."

While talking about Bishnoi, Varun briefly had a smile on his face. In his case, that was enough to show he was finally in a state of contentment.