‘Underprepared Pitches in Japan Might Aid Spin’: Varun Chakaravarthy

New Delhi : Expecting ‘underprepared’ tracks in Japan, India wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy believes spinners could play a pivotal role in the team’s upcoming Asian Games campaign, even as he cautioned that unpredictable weather conditions will ultimately dictate how the pitches behave during the tournament.

Chakaravarthy has fully recovered from a Grade 2 left hamstring injury sustained during the T20I series against England, including doing rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. In the Asian Games men’s T20 event, India, the gold medal winners in the last edition in Hangzhou, will begin their campaign from the quarter-final stage in Aichi-Nagoya.

“That’s how it has been scheduled, so I don’t have any say in that. But definitely every match and every tournament needs preparation, and that we have to do. So it’s just like every other tournament – we will prepare well and whatever comes our way, we will take it,” Chakaravarthy said in an exclusive interaction with IANS, facilitated by ASICS India.

Assessing the playing conditions at the Korogi Sports Park ahead of the marquee event, Chakaravarthy, who will also be in action for India’s T20Is against Afghanistan and the historic one-off clash against Japan, noted that adaptability will be key for the bowling unit.

“What I’ve seen is that the pitches might be a little bit underprepared. So it might help spin, but I don’t know how the weather in Japan will play a role in the way pitches behave. It can have a big impact as well. We are just preparing for facing all kinds of conditions, and let’s see how it goes,” he added.

Reflecting on the year so far, which saw him finish as the joint-highest wicket-taker with 14 scalps in India’s T20 World Cup triumph on home soil, Chakaravarthy termed it as a ‘rollercoaster’. “It’s been lovely. I have no complaints at all,” he said.  (IANS)

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