I learnt my variations from playing tennis ball cricket, says Siechem Madurai Panthers mystery spinner Varun Chakravathi

Before the start of 2018 TNPL, in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, the captain of Siechem Madurai Panthers, D Rohit pointed out that Varun Chakravathi will be the X-factor for his side in the 2018 TNPL, thanks to his mystery spin.

"He was our first pick in the TNPL draft. In fact, I only saw him in the nets for the first time. At that time, they were hyping him a lot. I wanted to see how good he was and I faced him in the nets. I made a joke of myself. I thought I was batting in a funny way and then I asked KB Arun Karthick to bat and then Thala (Thalaivan Sargunam) and Shijit (Shijit Chandran) faced him too. They struggled against him too. The thing is he is a mystery spinner and you don't know whether the ball is coming in or going out. And before you read him, his four overs are over. In T20s, which is a fast-paced format, I think he is going to be an unbelievable addition for us. He is going to be our X-factor this season," said Rohit in the interview.

Varun exactly did what his captain expected from him as he bowled well without any success in their first game against Dindigul Dragons and in the second against Chepauk Super Gillies, he picked up three wickets and played a key role in helping his team register their first-ever win in the tournament.

He applied pressure on the batsmen and picked up the wickets of a well-set S Karthik, M Ashwin and MK Sivakumar and ended up with figures of 3/16 in his four overs.

In the first match against Dindigul, he bowled his first three overs conceding just eight runs and the set batsmen N Jagadeesan and R Vivek took him to the cleaners in his final overs and made it 4-0-23-0, which is not bad for a spinner in the format while none of the other bowlers had an economy of less than 10.

Sportskeeda caught up with the mystery spinner after the first game against Dindigul in an exclusive chat. Here are the excerpts.

On how he got his variations: I used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket and I learnt my variations by playing tennis ball cricket.

On setting up the batsmen: 90% of the time, I try to hit my lengths, I don't try to think about anything else. In big tournaments like this, when you think too much, you tend to make mistakes. So all I try and do is hit my lengths. Today (after the game against Dindigul), first three overs, I bowled very well. The final over was against well-set batsmen and it just didn't work out.

Personal targets: I definitely want to play for India. In TNPL 2018, I want to help Madurai win the title.

Role models: My role models are Stuart MacGill and Anil Kumble.

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