‘He’s a guy for the future of the country’ – Varun Chakravarthy reserves big praise for teammate Suyash Sharma

Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Kolkata Knight Riders snapped their four-match losing streak in IPL 2023 after bashing Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy. While the KKR batters did their part in the first innings of the match, their spinners were too hot to handle for the home side. Varun Chakravarthy, who grabbed the Player of the Match award for his brilliant bowling spell, showered praise on his young teammate, Suyash Sharma.

The Bangalore-based franchise were off to a sumptuous start in the chase, but the KKR bowlers, especially the spinners, pulled things back nicely after the powerplay. While Varun Chakravarthy bamboozled RCB’s star-studded middle order with his exceptional bowling figures of 3/27, it was young leggie Suyash Sharma, who broke the deadlock for his side in his very first over.

The 19-year-old leggie, who has been one of KKR’s best performers in his debut season, scalped the massive wicket of Faf du Plessis in his very first over and then pinned Shahbaz Ahmed plumb in front in his following over. Following his match-defining performance, Chakravarthy hailed the youngster as the future of Indian cricket.

“Suyash Sharma has come into the team and I could say that he’s a guy for the future of the country. He is an amazing talent. I wish he can understand the level of cricket we are playing and fast-track his way to the county’s side,” Varun said in a post-match press conference.

I worked on my accuracy rather than working on different variations: Chakravarthy

Chakravarthy accounted for the big wickets of Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik, derailing the RCB chase, in his four-over spell. Talking about the changes he made in his bowling, the 31-year-old revealed the contributions of the backroom staff and stated that he is not trying too many different things with the ball, unlike last season.

I worked on my accuracy rather than working on different variations. Another aspect which I was working on was revolutions on the ball. I was working with AC Prathiban. He’s a spin coach back in Chennai, so it definitely worked. More than that, tactics, whatever Abhishek Nayar [KKR assistant coach] tells, it always works for me. They both have played a very good role in my comeback,” he added.