Chakravarthy was called up to the India squad a little too late for the Champions Trophy after an unnamed mystery spinner had to replace Yashasvi Jaiswal, the opener. After a superb season in the T20 format, Chakravarthy was bestowed the chance. “The reason we got him is that he doesn’t bowl too many variations in the nets. He bowls the ball in a pretty similar fashion.
Maybe he even doesn’t want to show us what he has got (laughs). Still, that’s the good part.
He has got some sort of a weapon that he wants to unleash when it actually counts. “If he wants to do that, I am more than happy,” he said. There is something really, really different that has brought him to us, though, and you take into account what we’ve seen from him in the last eight-nine months. This has become quite impressive.”‘
“Shami and Kuldeep have played very few matches for India due to injuries. Now they are back but have not regained their full form yet. With Bumrah missing in action, pressure would be on Shami, the highest wicket-taker for India in the 2023 ODI World Cup.”
“They’re both good as far as fitness is concerned. Shami has just played two ODIs and obviously two T20s as well. What we just wanted with Shami was to get him back in Indian colours again. It doesn’t matter any other way.”
At that moment, whether he was getting wickets or not was completely immaterial for us. We wanted him to get back to playing for India, and he did.
Of him, from what I’ve seen, he looks absolutely fine. When you talk about a bowler like Shami, who has so many times done the job for us, for them, it is just about getting back into their rhythm, and, hopefully, we can find that rhythm early on in this tournament to help the team. On Kuldeep, the skipper added: “Kuldeep, again very similar, was injured, just after the New Zealand series he went in for a hernia operation, and therefore, he was out of action for two and a half months.
It was really important for him to come back in and get back to that rhythm. Kuldeep only played two games and, for him, the numbers don’t show very much. Some players you don’t have to look at the numbers in so much detail.
It’s just a matter of getting back for certain people to play. If these two guys can get back in form, the side looks really good.”