T20 World Cup 2026: After South Africa storm, Chennai’s homeboy Varun Chakaravarthy rebuilds at the furnace

‘Ruthless’ is perhaps the word that best describes the summers in Chennai. So, when the sun hung low and baked the practice square into a shimmering mirage on Wednesday afternoon, nobody batted an eye. Especially the tribe of journalists, who bore the privilege of perching themselves atop cozy chairs inside the comforts of an air-conditioned press box at Chepauk.

Even from behind a glass pane, the white glare emanating from the playing area was blinding. So much so that many, including this reporter, had to seek asylum behind a pair of shades.

But a familiar figure, engrossed in a seemingly ascetic ritual in the very centre of the furnace, was unflinching.

A sweaty blue shirt—earnestly sought-after by a healthy chunk of the Indian population—clung to his back as his fingers caressed the seam of a humble cricket ball each time it left his hand. The leg-break, the googly, the one that skids, the one that bites—he owned the whole supermarket.

One glance through a pair of 10×25 binoculars revealed the unreadable, almost detached face of Varun Chakaravarthy, even as a lone bead of sweat trickled down his temple. He is presently the world’s best spinner in Twenty20 Internationals, 37 ranking points ahead of the wily Rashid Khan of Afghanistan.

But perhaps he had never felt as defeated. He had been having an impressive T20 World Cup; in the group stage, Varun had picked up nine wickets from four games while conceding merely 62 runs.

Until all of the good work came undone during a Super Eight fixture against South Africa last Sunday, when Varun was sent on a leather hunt by an effervescent and almost reverse-ageing David Miller. The Tamil Nadu bowler ended up accounting for 47 runs.

It was a rare sight, Varun straining his neck and following the spacebound ball as Miller dispatched an in-the-slot delivery 95 metres over long-on.

In fact, Varun has conceded in excess of 40 runs only four times in the shortest format of the game. But what would tickle the funny bone of any statistician is that on all four of those occasions, he was up against the Proteas: 54 at Centurion and 42 at Johannesburg in 2024, and 53 at Ahmedabad last year being the other instances.

If numbers are anything to go by, the line may have played a part. Against Namibia and the Netherlands in the group stage—games in which he snapped up three wickets—100 per cent and 89.4 per cent of his deliveries, respectively, were pitched in the channel of the off stump.

The stat slipped to 70.3 per cent against the world Test champion. Against the USA, Namibia, and the Dutch, Varun hadn’t sent in a single ball down leg. Against South Africa, it rose to a considerable 18.5 per cent.

Miller’s post-match thoughts shed some light on the brain behind the brawn: “It’s just about really making sure that we were on it in terms of if he bowls a bad ball, we got to put it away. So, [we showed] a little bit more intent, and it wasn’t spinning too much tonight, so you can kind of trust the line. And once we felt that, we felt, ‘Okay, we’ve got to take him down, because he is a threat to every team that he does play against.’ It was definitely something that we did speak about.”

Incidentally, the 76-run defeat the South Africans handed India is the heaviest it has been subjected to in T20 World Cup history. Its 12-match winning streak now snapped, the defending champion finds itself on unfamiliar ground, perhaps reduced to a bundle of nerves behind closed doors. With a lowly NRR of -3.8, the upcoming games against Zimbabwe and the West Indies bear the ‘must-win’ tag.

One would think even the confidence of Varun, the country’s top wicket-taker in the competition, may have taken a hit. Especially because he was the only Indian bowler who turned up on both the practice days at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. But A.C. Pratibhan, Varun’s personal coach who had helped him develop a deceptive googly, would dismiss all of it as mere conjecture with a guffaw.

“Varun is a different person mentally, physically, and practically. He is a f***ing self-made person. The clarity and the thought process he has are insane. I have not met one person who is clearer in the head than him,” the former TN off-spinner told Sportstar.

It doesn’t surprise Pratibhan, who has been working with Varun since 2022, at the slightest that the ‘mystery spinner’ decided to dedicate two days to his craft ahead of the game against the Chevrons.

“He is unbelievable in terms of work ethic. He may look a bit lazy on the outside, but in reality, he is unbelievable. Ask him to come at 6am, and he will be there. You can put him in different situations, but each time he will turn up excitedly.

“The amount of effort he puts in may sometimes not be visible outside. But since I have been with him, I have seen him grow. You can see the transformation in his body structure itself [Varun has shed 10-plus kilogrammes over the last two years]. He has become stronger silently behind the scenes. He is insane.”

India knows better than to take the current Zimbabwe unit lightly, for it is here after beating the likes of Australia and Sri Lanka. The side did stand exposed against spin, losing seven of its wickets to the West Indies’ tweakers in Mumbai, but Chennai has seemed nothing like the turning haven it once was.

Interestingly, when compared to all of the seven other venues, MAC has exhibited the highest run rate of 8.66, followed by Ahmedabad’s 8.51.

The balls faced by a batter per dismissal is also worth noting. It is 22.9 in Chepauk, with Ahmedabad’s 18.2 taking the second spot once again. Deliveries have hardly deviated; 86.6 per cent of deliveries bowled in Chennai have turned less than 2.5 degrees.

Yes, the odds may be stacked against Varun, but the homeboy is an ‘architect’ of repute. One that has helped India craft many a famous win across borders. Come Thursday, it should be business as usual.

Published on Feb 26, 2026