T20 World Cup 2026: What is going wrong for Varun Chakravarthy? Check details
February 26th became a memorable day for Indian cricket fans. In the first match of the day, South Africa defeated the West Indies by 9 wickets, keeping India's hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive. And in the night, India defeated Zimbabwe by 72 runs, bringing their campaign back to victory. After the huge 76-run defeat against South Africa, Team India was being criticised from everywhere. Many people even started doubting whether the Indian team would be able to defeat Zimbabwe.
However, the Indian team defeated Zimbabwe by 72 runs in the match played at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. India made a mountain-like score of 256 runs in this match, which has become the second-highest score in the T20 World Cup history. With this, India also surpassed the record of 254 runs set by the West Indies a few days ago. Both teams have made this record against Zimbabwe. In response, Zimbabwe could manage 184 runs. For them, Brian Benett scored an unbeaten 97 runs.
If the bowling of the Indian team had been a little better, then India could have achieved an even bigger victory, but Varun Chakravarthy and Shivam Dube could not do anything special in this match. Even though it was a forgettable day for Shivam Dube, who gave away 46 runs in just 2 overs. But the biggest problem for the Indian team is Varun Chakravarthy's form. He gave away 35 runs in 4 overs and got 1 wicket. In the previous match, Varun had conceded 47 runs in 4 overs and taken 1 wicket. Varun is a very important bowler for India in the middle overs, but in the last two matches, Varun has been successful neither in stopping the runs nor in taking wickets.
Varun is currently the leading wicket-taker for the Indian team, taking 11 wickets. In the group stage, he had taken 9 wickets, but in Super 8, he has taken only 2 wickets so far. His performance is becoming a major concern for Team India. Every match for India is now a do-or-die affair. Lose even one match, and India will lose the World Cup, so the team wants its ace spinner to perform at his best.
Several former cricketers and experts were also discussing Varun's line length, in which it was being said that he is bowling more than 6-8 meters of short balls, which are not ending in wickets, and that's why he is not getting wickets like earlier. He will have to work on this problem before the upcoming cricket matches.
The Indian Team’s next cricket match will be against the West Indies. The winner of that match will advance to the semi-finals, while the loser will be knocked out of the tournament. The match will be held at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on March 1.
At Eden Gardens, the West Indies never lost a match in the ICC T20 World Cup history till now. The Caribbean side has played 3 matches in this ground, and they won all. On the other hand, the Indian team is eyeing revenge for the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final defeat. It will be fascinating to see whether Varun will feature in the next cricket match or Kuldeep Yadav gets a chance in the India playing XI.
