Varun Chakravarthy on how he defeated a “nervous feeling” to pick five-wicket haul against New Zealand

Varun Chakravarthy brought out his very best against the Kiwis, claiming a fifer to leave New Zealand rattled in both the teams’ final group stage game of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

In what was a modest chase, the Kiwis couldn’t navigate around the treacherous webs of mystery knitted together by CV Varun. The Indian mystery spinner claimed the prized scalps of Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry.

Varun also won the Player of the Match award for his fifer against New Zealand. Talking at the post-match presentation, he revealed that he started off on a nervy note. He eventually garnered confidence along the way and how talking with the seniors played a good deal in shaping him up. He concluded with a quick word about the conditions and with a word of praise for his teammates.

Varun said, “First of all I did feel nervous in the initial stages. I have not played many matches for India in the ODI format but as the game went on I felt better. Virat, Rohit, Shreyas and Hardik were talking to me and that helped.”

He also revealed when he came to know about him being a part of the playing XI, stating, “I found out last night. I was definitely expecting to play for the country but on the other side I was nervous. It was not a rank turner, but if you bowled in the right places it was giving help. The way Kuldeep, Jaddu and Axar bowled, even the pace bowlers, it was a total team effort.”

It is going to be interesting to see if CV Varun does feature in the semi-final that India will be playing against Australia tomorrow. With the kind of form that he is in, he would have high hopes while India will be desperate to avenge their earlier defeat against the Aussies in the 2023 World Cup final.