India Star "Followed CSK Bus On Scooter", Net Bowling Changed His Career

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has made careers for many Indian cricketers. Arguably the biggest cricketing talent show in the world, the T20 league has given platforms to hundreds of budding cricketers, some of whom managed to seize the opportunities and make it big on the international stage. One such player is Varun Chakravarthy, who is 100 percent a product of the IPL and is a certain pick in India's white-ball teams at present. However, the start wasn't the most comfortable for Varun, who got the opportunity to make his mark in the sport quite late.

In a chat with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Chakravarthy explained how a net-bowling stint with CSK paved the way for his entry in the IPL. Though the mystery spinner didn't get to play for the Super Kings, he did manage to turn heads as a net bowler for them before making it big for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

"I bowled to DK, who was impressed and said that he would call me later on. That was the year Chennai was coming back to the IPL after two years of not playing. An interesting incident happened at that time. I learned that Mr. TS Mohan was handling the net bowlers for CSK. I was going on a scooter, following the CSK bus, and I called him from outside the Chepauk stadium.

"I told him that I bowl mystery spin and asked if there was a chance I could be a net bowler for CSK. He asked me which division I played in, and I said that I played in the fifth division. He explained that they only took first division bowlers and no one else. See, he could have easily said no to me, but somehow, he just asked me to come meet him the next day," Chakravarthy revealed during the candid chat with Ashwin.

Varun went to the stadium the next day and was delighted to be given the opportunity to bowl in the nets, even ahead of some of the first-division players.

"The next day, I saw that every bowler there was from the first division, except me, who was from the lowest division. Something clicked with him, and he first gave the ball to me. He wanted to see what I was about. All the first division bowlers were waiting behind me. I was bowling to Bravo, and the first two balls were straight beamers.

"I was so nervous. After that, I started beating them and bowled really well to Bravo, Dhoni, Raina, and others. They were very impressed and asked if I'd registered for the IPL. All of this happened on Day 1 itself. When they asked if I had registered for the IPL, I told them that I hadn't even registered for the first division. So, they asked me to come to do net bowling for CSK," he revealed.

Unfortunately, CSK had to shift their base to Pune that year, and the management decided against taking Chakravarthy as their net bowler. The call from Dinesh Karthik, however, eventually came, and soon Varun became a net bowler for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

In 2019, Varun was signed by the Punjab Kings, though he didn't get to play a lot for them. Since 2020, however, the spinner has been a central figure in the KKR side.

"After two matches of CSK in Chennai, they had to shift everything to Pune because of some political issues. So, they didn't take me there, and I was in Chennai. Then, DK called me and asked me to join KKR as their net bowler. I had a good time there and bowled really well. That's where I met Abhishek, and that's when everything started changing," he said.

Trending News