Varun Chakaravarthy revealed that after KKR registered their first win of the season in their seventh attempt in IPL 2026, he could see a "lot of tears in the dressing room which we didn't see in the year that we won the IPL in 2024."
The four-wicket win, which he called a "very very significant win", was the result of things finally coming together for KKR. Chakaravarthy revealed he had sufficiently recovered from two finger fractures on his non-bowling hand and it helped him utilise a helpful pitch at the Eden Gardens, where the square is finally showing signs of slowing down at the back end of a long season.
"Unfortunately, before the first match itself, I fractured one of my fingers and in another match, I fractured another finger," Chakaravarthy said. "Yeah, left hand, two fractures. So, I couldn't use my left hand itself. So, fielding, it was totally out of the question. I am trying to manage but it is still a little painful.
"Generally, it starts getting a bit slower," Chakaravarthy further said about the Kolkata pitch."I am not saying it slows down so much but today, I felt it was a 180-190 wicket. Both the teams struggled with batting.
Chakaravarthy, who has endured a difficult phase starting from the T20 World Cup, returned figures of 3 for 14 in his four overs and was named Player of the Match for his impact. He said he did not want to read too much into this performance.
"Look, just because I have taken three wickets today, I don't want to make a sweeping statement and all," Chakaravarthy said. "That's the nature of the game. Next match, if the wicket has nothing in it, that's going to happen to every spinner. As you can see, initially, every spinner was travelling. So, that's how it is. Once the pitches start slowing down, that's how we start coming into the game and we start being more effective. So, it's the nature of the game and we can't change it. So, I don't think much about that."
When Chakaravarthy came on to bowl in the ninth over, RR were flying at 79 for 0. He needed just four deliveries to strike, removing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his 200th T20 wicket. He then had Dhruv Jurel stumped and captain Riyan Parag bowled in an uninterrupted four-over spell that turned the game. He, though, insisted that little had changed in his bowling, except that he expanded his line of attack.
"I didn't change my length or my speed," Chakaravarthy said. "I am just changing the line of attack a little. So, more cramping lines, as in, not in the fourth stump line, wide of off, legside wide. I am working on all the lines right now, I am not just sticking to stumps."
But it didn't mean he compromised on his strengths, especially on a helpful pitch. "Once there is something in the pitch, I go back to my strength. My strength is to keep attacking the stumps," Chakaravarthy said. "But if there is nothing in the pitch, that's when bowlers start searching, they start getting confused, they are clueless, which happens to everyone. It has happened to the best of the best. So, no one can be judged with just one match of good performance and bad performance also.
"I am very tough on myself. If I don't do well, I go and pinpoint what is not there and all those things. But because the pitches were such that there was nothing for the spinners. If you see other spinners also, it was the same condition for everyone. So, yeah, it's nice that there is something for the spinners now and hopefully there is more for the spinners."
Chakaravarthy also pointed to the difficult start KKR had to the season, with injuries disrupting their plans early. He credited the support staff and team management, who have faced scrutiny not just for results but also for their auction strategy.
"We have not been winning and there are many outside noise which comes and which affects the players. But finally, we turned out in the better side today. We won the match," Chakaravarthy said. "Yes, there are many places to improve, for sure. Because we started this tournament with many, as in many injuries and it actually crippled us before even the tournament started. So, I would like to give credit to the coaches, the head coach also, Abhishek Nayar.
"If you're taking up a team in such a condition, you have a lot of work to do and you need a lot of courage for that. So, he has taken up the team from a very tough situation. So, it's going to take some time for build up. And I think slowly, slowly, step by step, baby step, one win here, one win there, we will be back on track."
