ICC Champions Trophy-2025: What Rohit Sharma said about Varun Chakaravarthy after match against Kiwis? How Varun was included in team?

"There is something different in him. We wanted to see how effective he could be," Captain Rohit Sharma said this about Varun Chakaravarthy after the match against New Zealand.

On 11 February 2025, a change was made in the Indian team selected for the ICC Champions Trophy-2025. Varun Chakaravarthy was included in the 15-player squad going to Dubai, replacing Yashasvi Jaiswal. With this announcement, the number of spinners in the team increased from four to five.

R Ashwin, the second most successful bowler in Indian cricket history, questioned this decision. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, he said, "I don't understand why Team India is taking so many spinners to Dubai."

Ashwin was not the only one to raise questions. Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik said, "Selecting five spinners in the team is probably too much."

Decision of the selectors proved right

But about 20 days later, this decision of the selectors seems to be proving right.

Team India captain Rohit Sharma opted to include four spinners in the playing XI. This decision not only proved to be effective but is also becoming one of the strongest aspects of Team India in the Champions Trophy.

Indian spinners created history against New Zealand. In this match, Indian spinners took 9 wickets. This is the best performance of spinners in a single match in the history of the Champions Trophy.

Earlier in 2004, Pakistan's spinners took eight wickets against Kenya.

Varun got a place in Team India for the first time in 2021 T20 World Cup

Varun Chakaravarthy got a place in Team India for the first time in the 2021 T20 World Cup. At that time Varun Chakaravarthy was considered the 'mystery spinner' of Indian cricket.

But this move of Team India proved unsuccessful. After playing three matches, Varun Chakaravarthy did not get a single wicket. After this tournament, Varun Chakravarthy was out of Team India.

However, Varun Chakaravarthy continued his good performance in IPL and after three years, he again secured a place in Team India. After his comeback, Varun Chakaravarthy took 33 wickets in 15 T20 matches and also presented his claim strongly for the Champions Trophy.

Varun did not get a chance in first 2 matches

In the first two matches, captain Rohit Sharma came on the field with three spinners, but Varun did not get a chance. When it was decided that India would play the semi-finals, Rohit Sharma tried Varun Chakaravarthy.

Varun Chakaravarthy did not disappoint this time and on the third ball of his second over, he bowled out Will Young, who was looking settled at the crease. From here, not only was the way made for Team India to come back in the match, but it was also decided that how big a strength spinners can be for the Indian cricket team in the semi-finals and finals.

Proof of this was also found when on the second ball of the 44th over, Varun uprooted the off stump of New Zealand captain Santner. After being bowled, Santner stood shocked at the crease for a few moments. As if he could not believe how he got bowled.

Well, in the next 6 balls, Varun took the wicket of Henry and Kuldeep took the wicket of William and gave the team a victory by 44 runs against New Zealand.