India mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy feels wickets in the ongoing Asia Cup are not offering much assistance to tweakers in the early part of the matches but it’s been comparatively easier for them to get some purchase off the track in the final 10 overs so far.
Chakravarthy, who has taken four wickets in four games at an impressive economy rate of 5.85, has been unlucky as many catches have been dropped off his bowling during the course of the tournament.
When asked if he felt more comfortable bowling towards the back-end in this tournament, the Tamil Nadu mystery spinner nodded in agreement, citing a softer ball and the spread out field as contributing factors.
“The harder the ball is, it definitely is not getting much purchase for a spinner. Talking from a spinner’s perspective, if you are bowling in the powerplay or right after the powerplay, there’s not much help from the wicket. But as the game progresses and as the field spreads out, it’s getting better,” he explained.
Chakravarthy said that run-containment isn’t an option in Powerplays and one needs to go for wickets.
“In Powerplay, the only aim is to look for wickets. It’s just looking for that one ball if it pitches on that right spot and it turns a little bit and it can edge it. It’s about looking for that because that’s my role in the team.
“Even if I go for little runs, my aim is to keep on attacking and try to look for more wickets,” he said.
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He said against Bangladesh too, once the ball got older, he found himself to be more effective.
“It was just that initially the ball was skidding on more and as the ball started getting older, I started getting a little bit more purchase from the wicket,” said Chakravarthy.
India entered the finals after the 41-run win on Wednesday and will be taking on old foes Pakistan in the summit clash on Sunday.
