IND vs. SL 2021: Dinesh Karthik hints at Varun Chakravarthy making his India debut

Indian batter Dinesh Karthik has indirectly stated that mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy could make his international debut for India in the first T20I against Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Karthik has captained Varun Chakravarthy at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and knows exactly what the spinner brings to the table. His mystery and the element of surprise could catch the Sri Lanka team off guard.

Dinesh Karthik took to Twitter to express his thoughts indirectly about Varun Chakravarthy making his India debut.

"I get the feeling, a mystery spinner is going to make his debut for (Indian flag) tonight in Colombo #INDvSL #T20Cricket #T20I"

I get the feeling, a mystery spinner is going to make his debut for 🇮🇳 tonight in Colombo 🙂 #INDvSL #T20Cricket #T20I
— DK (@DineshKarthik) July 25, 2021

Varun Chakravarthy could be an X-factor for India

Varun Chakravarthy was picked by the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) for a whopping INR 8.4 crore in the IPL 2019 auction. However, he played just one game and proved to be highly expensive.

Although the Kings lost faith in the spinner, the Kolkata Knight Riders picked him up in the IPL 2020 auction and showed faith in him.

With Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav not at their best, Varun Chakravarthy stepped up and produced an incredible performance that season.

Looking forward to see Varun Chakravarthy in action, it has been a long wait since last December due down to fitness, injury but still his strong mentality to come back again helped him to reach Sri Lanka and has a great chance to be part of the WC team in October.#SLvIND
— Bhawana (@bhawnakohli5) July 25, 2021

In 13 games, Chakravarthy picked up 17 wickets at an economy rate of just 6.84. His fifer against the Delhi Capitals was a stand-out performance, and he got picked for the T20I series against Australia.

However, fitness issues and injury woes kept him out of that series, as well as the T20I bout against England at home. But he wasn't disheartened as he produced another decent performance in the first half of IPL 2021.

In a KKR team that is languishing in last place, winning just two out of seven games, Varun Chakravarthy was one of the better performers, picking up seven wickets from as many games.

Although he didn't feature in the ODI series, Chakravarthy, in all likelihood, will get an opportunity against Sri Lanka in the T20Is. If he performs well, he could be a lethal weapon for India in the T20 World Cup later this year.