The world of cricket is often considered to be an unforgiving one. Budding cricketers die for an opportunity to play in the leagues with a huge fan base to give an instant boost to their careers. But the real struggle starts only upon getting into the league where they have very few opportunities to leave the mark they want and if they can’t, that’s basically an end to the career even before it has begun.
The story of Tamil Nadu’s Varun Chakravarthy is also the same, except it doesn’t end before the beginning. Currently a player for Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Team, he began his career at Kings XI Punjab last year. The team had chosen him for a whopping 8.4 crores last year. This had come as a surprise for him though, as his base price was just 20 Lakh Rupees.
While he must’ve hoped to make a huge name for himself in the last Indian Premier League itself, his ambitions were cut short. In the debut match itself, he injured himself and had to take an exit. While many argued that it’s the end of a career to become such an expensive player who didn’t play, Varun showed that there’s always hope at the end of a tunnel.
He came back this year and got himself selected as Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2020 player for 4 crores. Though this is almost more than a 50% drop from his last year’s price, he at least gets a chance to redeem himself.
In a match against CSK, Varun’s performance did not just elate him but also the fans. Dhoni was chasing a target of 168 when Varun’s ball crashed into the wickets and Dhoni was declared run out. In a video posted by iplt20.com, he said to Rahul Tripathy, “Three years back, I used to come to the Chepauk stand and sit with the audience, crowd. I used to come just to see Dhoni batting. Now I bowled against him. It was a surreal moment for me.” He also claimed to have taken a picture with Dhoni after this.
In the match against Rajasthan Royals, Varun Chakravarthy brought an end to the batting of Tewatia. In the fifth ball of the 11th over, Varun dismissed Rahul Tewatia. In the match against Delhi Capitals, his bowling let Shikhar Dhawan send a ball high in the air that was caught by Morgan.
In this season, Varun Chakravarthy is one of the most promising players. He is already an expert in leg-spinner, the carrom ball, the leg-cutter, the off-spinner, the flipper, the top-spinner and the arm ball. This year, the zeal to prove himself is added to this list.
In fact, this season the KKR Team players have been able to perform better than last year. The KKR IPL Team 2020 has already won 4 out of the 6 games that they have played, though they had lost their opening game. It seems that this season is a ray of hope and redemption for both, Varun Chakravarthy as well as KKR.