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Varun Chakravarthy selected for India-Australia tour; says ‘it feels surreal’ | Varun Chakravarthy recaps the journey he has taken to get to this point

Varun Chakravarthy, the Kolkata Knight Riders spinner from Tamil Nadu, has made his way into the Indian squad after giving a power-packed performance in IPL 2020. Varun Chakravarthy, who has played just one First-class match, got to know about the news after the match against Kings XI Punjab on Monday. The selection happened after a series of class performance by the young player.

“I keep using the same word, again and again, it feels surreal,” he told BCCI TV. “My basic goal was to play in the team regularly and perform and contribute to their wins. Hopefully I’ll be able to do the same for India. I am not very active on social media and I have to thank the selectors for keeping the faith in me. I don’t really have words”, he said.

Chakravarthy was picked by KKR after an intense bidding between Kolkata and Bangalore in the IPL 2020 auction. In a game against Delhi Capitals, he recorded his first five-wicket haul and helped his team win by 59 runs in Abu Dhabi.

In the post-match presentation where he was awarded Man of the Match against DC he said, “I pretty much started my spin bowling in 2018, that’s when I got my breakthrough in TNPL, it’s been high and lows – last year, I didn’t get many chances and I injured myself, I’m grateful for making a comeback this year. I have been working hard, but the motivation and faith has come from a lot of people around me”.

On Monday when BCCI announced their completed schedule for the Australia tour, the mystery spinner found his name in the 16-man squad of the T20I series. Before he began his cricketing career, he was an architect in Tamil Nadu trying to make his living. “Around 2015, when I was not making a lot of money (the switch from being an architect to becoming a cricketer), was freelancing and wasn’t able to meet my needs, I thought I would do something different, that’s when I turned to cricket. I still do it, I like that as well (being an architect). I’ll talk to my parents, my fiance. I’ll just talk to them, share the happiness with them. It is just good news for my family. I’m really short of words right now, India call up is a big thing. I really wasn’t expecting it”, he said.

Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.