Should Varun Chakaravarthy be dropped for the World Cup final? The jury is still out, and India's cricketing intelligentsia remains divided on the question. But someone who has worked closely with the mystery spinner believes he should be persisted with, reports Cricbuzz.
"No, no, no," says Bharat Arun, India's former bowling coach. "He was brilliant in the past, wasn't he? Exceptional, in fact."
The call to drop Chakaravarthy comes at the back of an underwhelming campaign that the spinner has endured in the ongoing tournament, picking only 13 wickets at an economy rate of 8.85, as compared to his T20I career economy of 7.75. These numbers too have been boosted courtesy his performances against Associate teams (1/24 vs USA, 3/7 vs Namibia and 3/14 vs Netherlands). His performances against Full Member teams, except Pakistan, have been below-par.
Since the group stage, in four matches he has picked only four wickets at 46.50 and an economy rate of 11.62. The dot-ball percentage has reduced from 45.8 percent to 26 percent. On the contrary, the boundary percentage off his bowling has shot up from 5.55 percent to 27.08 percent
Even in the home series against New Zealand, the opponent in the final, preceding the World Cup in which Chakaravarthy featured in three out of 5 T20Is, he was taken apart for 108 runs in 12 overs, for four wickets in return. Even though his economy rate of nine was significantly higher than his usual returns, it was lower than New Zealand's overall scoring rate in those matches of 9.94.
Interestingly, Chakaravarthy's last good performance came at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the venue where India is set to face New Zealand in the final on Sunday.
The former India bowling coach, however, has a few pieces of advice for the 34-year-old spinner. "Don't get defensive by bowling wide," Bharat advises Chakaravarthy. "When you try to bowl wide, it's not working. He has been effective when he's attacking the stumps. So attack the stumps."
Chakaravarthy conceded 64 runs against England in the semifinal, and Bharat points to that as well. "He might as well attack. He's not going to give away more than 64 runs anyway. But at least he will have an opportunity to get a wicket. That's what I'm saying."
He is also against the idea of Kuldeep Yadav replacing Chakaravarthy in the final.
"Somebody should talk to him and tell him, 'Varun, you stick to your strength. Don't deviate from that. Your strength is attacking the wicket.' Most of his victims, if you analyse it, are either LBW or bowled. What does that mean? It means he's attacking the stumps. Why move away from that? One odd ball bowled wide is okay, but not when you're moving away from the stumps. He's trying to escape, and that's not going to work."
"It's like a boxing match," Bharat says, drawing a comparison. "When you go into the ring saying, 'I don't want to get hit,' you'll end up taking the maximum number of hits. When you say, 'I want to knock this guy out, I want to punch,' you may still get hit, but at least you'll land two or three good punches on him. It's a mindset thing. It's the same with bowling as well. If you try to escape, you'll get hit more. Whereas when I try to attack you, I may still get hit, but I may at least get a wicket, which will set them back.
"Against England, he got Jos Buttler. He could have got another wicket because they were trying to hit, they were desperate. When you keep hitting the stumps, they may hit one or two sixes, but the third one they are bound to miss, no? Then you win - they get out. This is something that has to be drilled into him. You look at those matches where he has given away runs. Just rewind and see - you only have to watch those 24 balls - before being hit and after being hit. You'll know the answer."
BUMRAH, THE DIFFERENCE MAKER
The veteran coach also lauded Jasprit Bumrah's brilliance and versatility. "I think Bumrah has made a difference. He has bailed out India time and again with his brilliance," he said.
Bumrah rescued India from a potentially difficult situation against England with a series of toe-crushing yorkers. With Harry Brook's side needing 45 off the final three overs, Bumrah conceded only six runs in the 18th over, ensuring India still had 39 runs to defend across the last two overs.
"Others also need to chip in," says the Chennai-based Bharat. "Otherwise India becomes predictable. If you look at Arshdeep (Singh), he's bowling only wide yorkers. It's okay to bowl wide yorkers, but you should also mix them up with stump yorkers.
"Because wide yorkers allow the batters to free their arms. Whereas stump yorkers, if you can execute them well, the batter would not have that liberty. And when you mix wide yorkers with stump yorkers, there is always an element of doubt in the batter's mind. Now they know what you're going to bowl. But it becomes much more difficult for them if your execution of stump yorkers is perfect.
