Follow UsEnglish batter Harry Brook invited a lot of jibes and trolls after he remarked that he couldn’t read Varun Chakravarthy’s googly from his hand because of the smog in Kolkata. However, in the second T20I in Chennai, it took Chakravarthy just one delivery to clean up Brook again in a similar fashion, as a googly crashed into his stumps after he made a lot of room to play it on the off side.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, R Ashwin shared his insights on Brook’s method of dealing with Chakravarthy’s mystery spin.
“One thing I noticed when the England batsman handled Varun Chakravarthy was that there was no smog in Chennai,” Ashwin said on Ash Ki Baat, his Hindi YouTube channel.
“Harry Brook got bowled at Eden Gardens and had said that there was a lot of smog in Eden Gardens and lighting was tough. I want to tell one thing to Harry Brook. Harry Brook, you keep in your mind that Varun Chakravarthy’s leg spin does not spin that much. It’s his googly.”
“Once, you (Harry Brook) moved to the leg stump and could not read the delivery. So you were clean bowled. Then you covered the stumps (in Chennai) and took a big stride but could not read the googly once again and got clean bowled."
The offspinner pointed out that irrespective of the lighting, it’s evident that Brook has been unable to read Chakravarthy’s variations from his hands. "When the ball is leaving Varun’s hands, it’s obvious that it will be a googly,” Ashwin said.
“Lighting could be like anything but if you cannot read the googly then you are not reading it. So you should keep in your mind that you have not been able to read Varun’s googly yet.”
Ashwin also explained how other English batters learned from their mistakes in Kolkata and managed to play Chakravarthy much better.
“In Eden Gardens, Livingstone showed all the three stumps and could not read the googly and got bowled. But in Chennai, he covered the off-stump and three stumps and pulled all the balls towards leg stump. That strategy worked well for Livingstone and he benefited from that,” Ashwin, who recently got awarded a Padma Shri, said.
“One more batsman who faced Varun Chakravarthy well was Brydon Carse. He was getting on to off-stump and playing square off the wicket. The ball bounces more in Chepauk and if the ball skids, such strategy would not work.
“Varun has high arm action and his googly over spins so he gets bounce almost at every surface. But to face his bounce without using feet or without utilising the depth of crease or not to use square off the wicket shots will cause trouble and you will be stuck.”
The third T20I will be played on January 28 in Rajkot.