"A great season here could make him a contender for 2023 World Cup" - Virender Sehwag on Varun Chakravarthy's India comeback
Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has been impressed with the way the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) spinner Varun Chakravarthy has started his IPL 2023 season.
Chakravarthy was just sensational against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), picking up figures of 4/15 as the hosts thumped RCB at the Eden Gardens. He had burst onto the scene during the IPL 2020 season and some impressive performances for KKR meant that he was fast-tracked into the Indian team for the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Although inconsistency saw him being dropped from the national team, Sehwag feels Chakravarthy has a chance to make a comeback. Speaking to Cricbuzz after Kolkata's win over Bangalore, here's what Virender Sehwag had to say about Varun Chakravarthy's potential comeback to the Indian team:
"Varun Chakravarthy doesn't have the ball that goes away like a proper wrist spinner. He relies on topspin and googlies predominantly and the RCB batters didn't play him well, getting played-on a couple of times. Who knows, a great season here could make him a contender for the 2023 World Cup in India."
Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine helped Suyash Sharma pick wickets: Virender Sehwag
For the first time in IPL history, 9 wickets out of 10 in an innings went to the spinners. KKR already had two quality options in Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, but the addition of impact player Suyash Sharma made things go from bad to worse for RCB.
The young spinner from Delhi picked up figures of 3/30 on his debut and Virender Sehwag praised him for his effort. He stated:
"The fact that Varun and Narine were so economical that RCB batters decided to go after the newcomer (Suyash Sharma) and he picked up three wickets too. That was the icing on the cake for KKR as he bowled really well for the first time on such a big stage in front of 70,000 supporters."
Although KKR's batting has some issues, their spin trio will definitely be their strongest suit going forward in the tournament.