Mumbai: Fresh off India’s dramatic Asia Cup 2025 victory, spinner Varun Chakravarthy stands at the intersection of form, flair and controversy. His performance in the final, combined with his cheeky social media gesture, has amplified his standing as a key spin weapon for India — one he hopes extends across formats in the coming years.
In the Asia Cup final against Pakistan in Dubai, Chakravarthy played a vital role, picking crucial wickets (2-30) and helping trigger Pakistan’s collapse from 113/1 to 146 all out. His dismissals of openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman tilted the match in India’s favour.
But the on-field victory was complicated by the post-match drama. India refused to accept the trophy from ACC chairman and PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi. Dignitaries walked off, and Indian players celebrated with an imaginary trophy in their midst.
Chakravarthy responded with equal doses of wit and defiance. On social media, he posted a photo of himself holding a simple teacup in place of a trophy, captioned:
“Akkha duniya ek taraf, aur mera INDIA ek taraf. Jai Hind !!!”
The post quickly went viral, as fans turned his cup into a symbol of the moment and shared their own edited images of the team lifting imaginary silverware.
Amid all that, Chakravarthy remains grounded in his ambition. “I would like to play every match India is playing, but it’s up to the selectors,” Varun Chakaravarthy said on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai on Tuesday.
He’s clear about what makes him effective, especially on Asian pitches. “If you see the pitches in Dubai, they have worked well towards me…they are a little on the slower side, so that kind of helps me more. My role was to just keep on attacking the stumps and keep on challenging the batsmen to hit me for a six or something, take an aggressive option so that I can take a wicket, that was the basic plan.”
On his dynamics with Kuldeep Yadav, Chakravarthy believes their combination offers balance: “So, Kuldeep is definitely one of the most experienced bowlers right now in the pool of players that we have and he has done amazingly well and we kind of complement each other because I bowl at the speeds of 95 km per hour and he bowls around 85 km per hour, so we kind of complement each other and he has more revs and more turn, I have more speed and bounce, so till now it's been working well for us. Hopefully, we can do the same thing that we have been doing in the World Cup, also.” (IANS)
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