Varun Chakaravarthy ends 2-month long slump with Sooryavanshi, Jurel & Parag scalps in KKR vs RR match

Varun Chakaravarthy entered the T20 World Cup 2026, as the world’s best spinner. In the group stage, he validated the claim. He returned with 9 wickets in 4 matches. The mystery spinner was unplayable. It the previous 2 years, Varun was the world’s best and he was proving it, at the highest stage. And then, it all came crashing down.

Varun claimed 5 wickets in the remaining matches, Super 8, semifinal and final. But he hammered all over the park. In the semifinal, he gave away 64 runs as Jacob Bethell took him apart. All of sudden, he didn’t look like the world’s best spinner. He was like a deer in in the headlights. No one had any idea what happened. In the space of days, he went from unplayable to fodder.

This trend carried into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Varun was the Kolkata Knight Rider’s (KKR) best bowler in the last season, 17 wickets. In fact, in the ongoing decade, 2022 was the only year where he wasn’t KKR’s highest wicket-taker in a season. But now, he was ineffective.

Varun Chakaravarthy T20 bowling stats (Febraury 20 to April 18)

His first 6 overs, spread across 2 matches, went for 79 runs. And he remained wicketless. After the second game, he missed the next two. KKR stated that Varun had injured his finger while taking the catch of Abhishek Sharma. But, many speculated that he was rested or dropped due to bad form.

Perhaps it was true. Because, he’s gotten better and better since his return. He wasn’t exceptional against the Chennai Super Kings but didn’t go for many. He picked up his first wicket of the season against the Gujarat Titans. His bettered his economy once again.

Varun Chakaravarthy in IPL 2026

But, now, he’s truly back to his best. On a helpful surface at the Eden Gardens, Varun made the Rajasthan Royals (RR) batters dance to his tunes. Ajinkya Rahane had been making the error to introduce him in the powerplay, despite him struggling due to the field restrictions.

Rahane brought Sunil Narine and handed Varun the ball in the 9th over. As mentioned above, the pitch had grip. It was slow and spinning. It was all Varun needed after 2 woeful months. He had immediate impact as he sent Vaibhav Sooryavanshi back, giving KKR their first breakthrough.

One didn’t know then, but this started a collapse. RR were 81/0 in 8.3 overs. In the remainder of the innings, they scored just 74/9. At the heart of this collapse was Varun. He sent Dhruv Jurel packing in his second over with Narine getting the better of Yashasvi Jaiswal. His last over, 15th, wielded another wicket. Riyan Parag walked back.

Varun ended his spell with 14/3. Just the figures alone are great. But there was much more to his bowling that dots and wickets. For the last 2 months, Varun had been bowling too full or too short whenever someone attacked him. The batters had also started to play him on the front foot to negate the effect of his stock ball, which he lands at the back of good length area.

Today, we saw him spam that length. This was always the reason behind his success. He wasn’t a pitch dependent bowler. But the moment the batters managed to make his miss his lines and lengths, they had no issues facing him. Well, Varun didn’t allow RR batters to do that in Kolkata. And that’s why he succeeded.

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