‌Disgraced World Cup ace to Champions Trophy winner: the rise and rise of Varun Chakaravarthy

Varun Chakaravarthy never played professional cricket until he was 26 years of age. Eight years later and after multiple heartbreaks during a long grind, the mystery spinner in 2025 became the top ranked T20I bowler in the world and led India’s charge to their first ICC ODI trophy since 2011. Welcome to the year that belonged to Varun, traversed with numbers and stories.

Highlights and Heartbreaks

Varun began the year with a man of the match striaghtaway, his 3/23 against England at Eden Gardens helping keep the visitors to 132 enroute to a comfortable Indian win. Two games later, he wiped out England's middle-order to end with 5/24 albeit it was not enough to secure his team a victory. All in all, Varun would end up taking 15 wickets across five matches to win the man of the series honours.

The antics got him into the Champions Trophy squad where he made a mark in just his ODI appearance by bagging 5/42 against New Zealand to help bowl them out for 205 in a chase of 250. He went on to claim two wickets in the semi-final against Australia, including that of arch-nemesis Travis Head, and replicated the effort against the Kiwis in the final to pave India's way towards the title.

However, an underwhelming IPL season followed where had practically no standout performances to showcase, his good days overshadowed by his more experienced counterpart Sunil Narine. The veteran hit rock bottom in the final league stage game against Sunrisers Hyderabad with both teams already eliminated, conceding 54 runs in just three overs without any wickets to show for it.

The dip in form continued with an underwhelming Tamil Nadu Premier League season, the tournament through which he first broke into the IPL scouting radar and consequently the global stage, while playing under the leadership of Ravichandran Ashwin for Dindigul Dragons. The spinner scalped just 11 wickets in 10 games, two less than his skipper, at 26.18 and an economy of 7.38. In the final, he returned figures of 1/39 from his four overs, as IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans triumphed by a mammoth 118 runs.

However, it made little difference when Varun returned to Indian colours for the Asia Cup as he claimed seven wickets in six games at a meagre economy of 6.50 to help the Men in Blue runaway with the trophy undefeated. The effort made him just the third Indian bowler to climb to the top of the ICC bowling charts after Jasprit Bumrah and Ravi Bishnoi, ending Duffy's six month reign.

Despite the rousing T20I numbers, Varun was left out of the ODI squad Down Under, with Kuldeep being preferred as the only specialist spinner in the squad. Regardless, his T20I excellence continued as Varun scalped five wickets across three innings in his rain-affected debut tour of Australia to help win the series 2-1.

Nevertheless, Varun's newly earned global repute meant he was named skipper of Tamil Nadu for the 2025 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Yet, his struggles in the domestic scene continued, as Varun took just two wickets in four games at an economy of 9.75 and the team crashed out of the group stages. The spinner endured a particularly hard time against Delhi and Karnataka, going wicketless in both games while conceding 47 runs.

Varun was left out again for the South Africa ODIs at home, while being the first name on the teamsheet for the T20Is. He claimed two wickets each in Cuttack, Mullanpur, and Dharamsala, the latest of those coming at the cost of just 11 runs in four overs, before closing out the year with a bang with Ahmedabad. Even though he went for 54 runs as the Proteas tried to pursue 232, Varun handed India the first breakthrough by claiming Reeza Hendricks for the fourth time in his T20I career before effectively ending all hopes with the wickets of Donovan Ferreira and Aiden Markram in successive deliveries in his second spell to ultimately end with four wickets and his second player of the series award.

Achievements unlocked

Before Varun even played any cricket in 2025, his year was off to a flying start with a call-up to India's Champions Trophy squad, only his second inclusion in an ICC event and first in ODIs -- a format he was yet to debut in. The announcement was barely surprising given the mystery spinner had enjoyed a successful comeback to the international circuit a few months ago and was bound to be a helpful on the sluggish Dubai tracks where India were slated to play all their games.

In December, Varun became the first Indian bowler to break the 800-point barrier in the ICC T20I rankings. He peaked at 818 during the bilateral series against South Africa, making it the eighth highest peak of all-time with Bumrah the next-best Indian at 16th with a tally of 783. The high was a result of two man of the series performances in the year at home, against England and the Proteas respectively.

A statistician’s dream

Varun ended 2025 as the leading wicket-taker in T20Is amongst bowlers from Test playing nations, with Jacob Duffy trailing behind in second. The spinner's 36 wickets came in just 18 games at an average of 13.19 and an economy of 7.09, with a scalp coming less than every two overs. Josh Little (39), Wanindu Hasaranga (38), and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (37) are the only full-member bowlers to have managed more in a calendar year, albeit in at least two more innings than Varun. 

With 17 scalps for Kolkata Knight Riders in the latest IPL season, Varun became just the 15th bowler and eighth Indian in 18 years of the tournament to claim 15 wickets in an edition five times or more. Amongst spinners, only Yuzvendra Chahal (9), Rashid Khan (7), and Sunil Narine (6) had achieved the feat before him.

Varun's introduction to ODI cricket was as good as it gets, the spinner turning out for four games in the Champions Trophy to scalp nine wickets at an economy of 4.75, including a fifer against New Zealand.

Narrative Twists

October 24, 2021. The humidity is unbearable under bright lights in Abu Dhabi. One would wonder it won’t bother a man from Tamil Nadu too much, but the pale expression on Varun Chakaravarthy’s face tells a different story. His forehead is covered in sweat, and you wonder if it is the heat or the nerves. Just a couple of years ago, no one knew his name. Now, he stood wearing an Indian jersey in the World Cup opener, playing arch-rivals Pakistan in a packed arena teeming with noise. He had worn the jersey just three times before, and managed only two wickets in helpful conditions – a far cry from the 30 wickets in two IPL seasons that had got him there. The Men in Green were 71/0 chasing 152 and ahead of the curve, but it was these exact moments for which the mystery spinner had been picked. Second ball, Mohammad Rizwan gets down on one knee and slams a six. Two deliveries later, Babar Azam does not even take to the deck –  a simple squat is enough to send the Kookaburra into the crowd. Varun would end up with zero wickets in three matches, as India went crashing out of the group stages.

Varun disappeared from the Indian conscience thereafter, beyond the two months the IPL lasted, for the next three years. In 2024, the perception of Varun in both the management and fans' eyes had finally softened enough to hand the enterprising athlete another chance. Varun returned to T20I cricket after a break of 86 games, the second longest such streak for Indian behind only Khaleel Ahmed. While fans forgave and embraced him after successful endeavours back in blue, a large sect still blamed Varun for the 2021 debacle. But redemption finally arrived in 2025, when the spinner made up for his sins by delivering India the Champions Trophy, their first ICC ODI trophy since the 2011 World Cup, by ending as the team's leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

Come present day, Varun has become universally loved not only for being a bona fide match-winner for India but also for his cool demeanour on the pitch and stone cold expressions. Undettered by pressure, Varun has leapfrogged the likes of Kuldeep, Chahal, and Axar to become the spin face of Indian white-ball cricket.