‘I was not able to meet my needs’ – KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy on financial constraints forcing him to choose cricket as a career

Varun Chakravarthy isn’t someone, who came up the ranks, playing age-group cricket and aspired of playing since childhood. In fact, it was only in 2015 that he chose to ply his trade as a cricketer. However, back then, it was a forced call as the now 29-year-old wasn’t able to meet his financial needs being an architect. The decision has turned out to be a masterstroke thus far.

At the present point in time, he is the leading wicket-taker for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL). Also, on Saturday, October 24, he became the first bowler to get a five-wicket haul in the ongoing edition of the T20 tournament. The tweaker accomplished the feat against the Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

I was not able to meet my needs: Varun Chakravarthy

It wasn’t a surprise that he was given the ‘Player of the Match award’. During the presentation ceremony, Chakravarthy talked about his journey of being a cricketer in the last five years or so. He narrated his story while speaking to Harsha Bhogle, the renowned Indian sports journalist.

“Around 2015, When I was not making bucks. I was doing freelancing and I was not able to meet my needs. So, I thought I will do something different so that’s how I turned to cricket,” Chakravarthy was quoted as saying.

Chakravarthy got his first wicket when the Capitals needed around 12 runs per over. The spinner dismissed Rishabh Pant, who tried to smash him over the square leg region. From there on, Varun didn’t look back. He got DC skipper Shreyas Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel.

On the back of his stupendous spell of bowling, KKR restricted the Capitals to 135 for nine, winning the match by 59 runs. For the time being, Varun has 12 wickets from 10 matches at a stupendous economy rate of 7.05.

Back in 2019, it was Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), who secured his services, but he got a solitary chance against KKR after which he was benched. The Punjab-based franchise released him after which the Knights picked him up for the 2020 edition.