India vs England: Ahead of semis, Varun Chakravarthy puts in massive shift with Morne Morkel

MUMBAI: Wednesday’s nets session was an optional one, but Varun Chakravarthy was out there, alongside bowling coach Morne Morkel, slogging it out in searing heat.

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The focus throughout the session, and during the mammoth one that India put in on Tuesday evening, was on the length he needs to hit against England in the semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.




Varun started the T20 World Cup campaign with a bang, ending the four-match group stage with nine wickets at a strike rate of 8. But in the Super Eights, while bowling against stronger opponents, he was found somewhat wanting. In the three games, he took just two wickets at a strike-rate of 24 and conceded 10.16 runs per over, which is much higher than his career economy rate of 7.23. He finished with figures of 1/47 against South Africa, 1/35 against Zimbabwe and 1/40 against West Indies.

Against South Africa, David Miller, Dewald Brevis and Tristan Stubbs showed the courage to take on the mystery spinner. As a result, he erred in his line and length—bowling a bit short or fuller when put under pressure—which brought him into the batters’ arc to hit him down the ground or either side of the wicket. The story repeated against the West Indies in the last match at the Eden Gardens, with Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder going after the Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinner. When the batters took him on, they curtailed his ability to apply the squeeze in the middle overs and take wickets to keep the opponents on the mat.

Varun is still among the top-five wicket-takers in this edition with 12 scalps, but teams seem to have dissected his variations, especially the googly, which has been his go-to delivery to take wickets. Almost 75% of his wickets in T20Is have come with the googly. When he has bowled the googly at pace, rival batters have played him as an incoming bowler and tried to hit him straighter. When he has got one to turn away, batters have backed themselves and adjusted.

With the likes of Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell and Will Jacks in their ranks, England will take a cue from Varun’s outings against South Africa and West Indies, make use of the shorter boundaries and put the 34-year-old under pressure.

During the media interaction, Morkel revealed that discussions with Varun centred around getting “clarity” of his plans a day ahead of the match and “allowing him to walk away feeling good about his body”.

“With the variations that Varun’s got, he’s got the ability to take a wicket with almost every ball. So, the discussion was that if he goes for a boundary, the aim is to move on to the next one and make sure he commits to that next ball. He’s hard to pick once you walk into the crease. So, for him it’s just about getting that confidence into the ball, getting his speed, his length and control right,” said Morkel.


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