Being Varun Chakravarthy is not easy: Ups and downs, redemption and a strong comeback in Champions Trophy 2025

There are plenty of upcoming stars in Indian cricket who have recently impressed the fans and experts in the last couple of seasons. One such name is the 33-year-old mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. The Tamil Nadu bowler has been known to be a difficult bowler to pick for any batter in competitive cricket with his variety in pace and variations. 

Though now Chakravarthy is one of the prominent bowlers for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), it has not really been a comfortable run for him from the word go. His career as a professional cricketer has been a roller coaster full of ups and downs. It is time to discuss this interesting career, which went on to give the Indian cricket fraternity another talented spinner who is now one of the biggest stars in the international arena.

1. Struggles and poor start to international cricket

Varun Chakravarthy had a late start to professional cricket, playing his first domestic game in 2018 at the age of 27. He made his IPL debut for the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2019 at the age of 28 but could not make an impact that season, playing only one game in the end. He was bought by KKR in 2020 and, due to some good performances, the leggie got his call-up in India's T20I squad and was even part of T20 World Cup 2021. Unfortunately, the Bidar-born did not impress in the ICC event, where he was expensive and failed to take wickets. The 2022 IPL was also disastrous for him as he was not seen in the Indian team for a long time.