Champions Trophy: Is Varun Chakravarthy the new Ajantha Mendis or is he here to stay?

India’s mystery spinner has made an eye-catching entrance to ODI cricket after starting out late in the format

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy took 5-42 during India's Champions Trophy win over New Zealand in Dubai. Getty Images

Were India hiding their cards by not introducing Varun Chakravarthy until the third match of the Champions Trophy? Or, to broaden out the point, by keeping him away from one-day international cricket altogether until he was 33?

Were they just giving everyone else a chance? Or luring the opposition into a false sense of security then unloading their secret weapon on unsuspecting rivals?

In all likelihood, probably not. Rohit Sharma seemed sincere when he said, ahead of the dead rubber group match against New Zealand, that Chakravarthy was in the line-up mainly because they wanted to rest young seamer Harshit Rana.

But in the two games since – which were just the second and third of his ODI career so far – Chakravarthy has shown precisely what Indian Premier League followers already knew: that he is a spin bowler of rare gifts.

Clearly, India don’t want for slow bowlers. They never have. He was the fourth in the XI to face New Zealand, and the other three – Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja – have got a fair bit of pedigree between them.

Plus, Ravichandran Ashwin only recently retired. He was a titan of the international game, and yet even he was never guaranteed a game in the India side. So there are good reasons Chakravarthy has not been seen on this stage before.

Three matches is only a tiny sample size on which to base any assessment. But Chakravarthy’s work over the past week has brought to mind Ajantha Mendis, the former shooting star of Sri Lankan cricket.

Both the method they employ – googlies, carrom balls, multi-variations besides, all delivered at a decent pace – and the bewildered response they elicit from batters is almost identical.

Mendis burst on to the scene in the global game at the 2008 Asia Cup as a spinner with a unique method, that no one could pick. His first ODI five-wicket haul came in that event against a UAE side made up of largely amateur players.

But Mendis proved very quickly he was not just the bowling version of a flat-track bully. OK, the storekeepers, cabin crew and students of the UAE could not pick him, but neither could the megastars of the country that produces more spinners than any other on earth.

Mendis took 6-13 against India – Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit himself among the victims – in the final of that 2008 Asia Cup.

A star was born, but it faded before real greatness could be achieved. Mendis took four or more wickets in an innings six times in the first 16 times he bowled in ODIs. He only managed it four times in the next 71 matches he played thereafter.

After 17 ODIs, he had 48 wickets and a bowling average of 9.64. By the end of his 87-match career, his average was over 21, proving he had become easier to play.

The tools that batters can use to demystify bowlers like Mendis, Chakravarthy, or Mujeeb Ur Rahman and AM Ghazanfar of Afghanistan, are more sophisticated than ever. It means they are unlikely to remain impossible to pick for long.

But they can still succeed. Even in the semi-final against Australia, Steve Smith showed signs he could read Chakravarthy. Playing him, though, was never easy.

Chakravarthy is already well known because of his impact in the IPL, but he says the challenge is a different one in the longer format.

“My sequencing of balls as in how I construct an over is totally different [in] the 50-over format,” Chakravarthy said.

“That I was able to figure out when I played the last two years in Vijay Hazare [Trophy, India’s domestic limited-overs competition].

“It really helped me to understand when I can bowl my incoming delivery or outgoing delivery, or the straighter one, or the top spin, whatever it is.

“That gave me a sense of awareness of when to bowl, it is completely different from what I do in T20. It took me a lot of playing.”

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  India's Varun Chakravarthy, left, celebrates the wicket of New Zealand's Glenn Phillips during their Champions Trophy match in Dubai on Sunday, March 2, 2025. AP

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  Kane Williamson made a valiant fifty for New Zealand at the Dubai International Stadium. Getty Images

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  Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowlers for India, taking 5-42. Getty Images

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  New Zealand's Will Young walks back to the pavilion after being bowled by Varun Chakravarthy. AFP

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  Hardik Pandya celebrates with teammate Shubman Gill after taking the wicket of New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra. AFP

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  Hardik Pandya scored a crucial 45 for India batting first. AP

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  Shreyas Iyer scored a brilliant fifty on Sunday. AP

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  Shreyas Iyer rescued India after an early fall of wickets. AP

Could Chakravarthy have a similar impact on the ODI game as Mendis? The landscape is so different now, it does not seem a fair comparison to make.

T20 dominates now, whereas ODI was the leading barometer of a limited-overs player when Mendis started out.

Plus, Chakravarthy is starting out so late. Now 33, he would do well to match the number of games Mendis played in the format, but there are chances for him to create some sort of ODI legacy.

There is the final of this Champions Trophy in Dubai on Sunday, as well as the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. They are a few dreams he could fulfil.

It is not just ODI cricket. Chakravarthy was a late starter in all forms of the pro game. He spent five years studying to be an architectural engineer, then two more working as one, before deciding to give cricket one last crack.

“When I was 26, I started,” he said. “Before that, my dreams were all being an architect and making movies. I’ve had different career paths. It has been different. After 26 is what I started dreaming about cricket. And all those things are happening.”