Follow UsVarun Chakaravarthy's addition to India's ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad was an afterthought, and against New Zealand on March 2 (Sunday), he showed why it shouldn't have been that in the first place. He was never in plans until all of India's matches were moved to Dubai.
An excellent Indian Premier League (IPL), where he finished with 21 wickets, followed by a superb Vijay Hazare Trophy, saw Varun catapult into the Indian side. There was little doubt over his return to the T20I side after the kind of IPL he had, but was he ready to be included in the 50-over side? That was the real question.
In fact, since he returned to the T20I side in 2024 against Bangladesh, he had gone wicketless just once, and in matches where he picked up wickets, he picked up at least two. He picked up 12 wickets at 11.50 against South Africa and only bettered it with 14 wickets at 9.85 in the home series against England.
However, he further did his chances of being picked in the ODIs no harm, finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 18 scalps, finishing second just to Arshdeep Singh (21). Safe to say, it was going to be tough to keep him out.
He played just one ODI before the tournament but missed the next game of the series against England due to a calf injury. Yet, they had so much faith in him that they picked him over Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Champions Trophy squad.
Other than his excellent numbers with the ball, Gautam Gambhir, who watched him in close quarters at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), too showed immense faith in him. Now, you see why?
Dubai has not been a happy hunting ground for Varun, who bowled 11 wicketless overs in the T20 World Cup 2021. Four years later, he finally found some redemption at the same venue with a maiden fifer in ODIs.
His ability to bowl stump-to-stump led to the batters' undoing. As a result, four of Varun's five wickets were either bowled or LBW. "It was not a rank turner, but if you bowled in the right places, it was giving help," Varun said after the match.
Varun came into this match in place of Harshit Rana. But after a performance like this: a player-of-the-match-winning performance, it is difficult to imagine Rana coming back into the scheme of things for the semis against Australia and potentially the final, too.
"He has something different about him, so wanted to try and see what he can offer. We haven't thought much about the next game, but good headache to have," India skipper Rohit Sharma said of Varun.
That "something" is the mystery aspect in Varun's repertoire, which not many batters in the world can read. Moreover, his ability to bowl at different speeds, right from the mid-80s to about 100, without missing his lengths by much too, has bamboozled the batters. So much so that he was hit for just three boundaries today.
With Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja's ability to chip in with both bat and ball, Varun was never a certain starter. However, Varun provides that X-Factor, who, on his day, can make up for those 15-20 runs that the batters fail to provide with timely wickets.
The 33-year-old could very well be the difference between India lifting their second ICC trophy in nine months or once again going down after coming agonisingly close. Either way, his selection in the Champions Trophy over an extra batter has already proved to be a masterstroke.