In the Asia Cup final against Pakistan in Dubai, Chakravarthy played a vital role, picking crucial wickets (2-30) and helping trigger Pakistan\u2019s collapse from 113\/1 to 146 all out. His dismissals of openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman tilted the match in India\u2019s favour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But the on-field victory was complicated by the post-match drama. India refused to accept the trophy from ACC chairman and PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi. Dignitaries walked off, and Indian players celebrated with an imaginary trophy in their midst.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Chakravarthy responded with equal doses of wit and defiance. On social media, he posted a photo of himself holding a simple teacup in place of a trophy, captioned:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cAkkha duniya ek taraf, aur mera INDIA ek taraf. Jai Hind !!!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The post quickly went viral, as fans turned his cup into a symbol of the moment and shared their own edited images of the team lifting imaginary silverware.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Amid all that, Chakravarthy remains grounded in his ambition. \u201cI would like to play every match India is playing, but it\u2019s up to the selectors,\u201d Varun Chakaravarthy said on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai on Tuesday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He\u2019s clear about what makes him effective, especially on Asian pitches. \u201cIf you see the pitches in Dubai, they have worked well towards me\u2026they are a little on the slower side, so that kind of helps me more. My role was to just keep on attacking the stumps and keep on challenging the batsmen to hit me for a six or something, take an aggressive option so that I can take a wicket, that was the basic plan.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On his dynamics with Kuldeep Yadav, Chakravarthy believes their combination offers balance: \u201cSo, Kuldeep is definitely one of the most experienced bowlers right now in the pool of players that we have and he has done amazingly well and we kind of complement each other because I bowl at the speeds of 95 km per hour and he bowls around 85 km per hour, so we kind of complement each other and he has more revs and more turn, I have more speed and bounce, so till now it's been working well for us. Hopefully, we can do the same thing that we have been doing in the World Cup, also.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Chakravarthy also spoke about coaching influence, especially from Gautam Gambhir: \u201cI have already worked with him in the IPL, and we won that IPL, so nothing new to me because I have already been around him. But definitely one thing which I can say about him is he brings a Spartan mentality to the team, where there is no option of losing, you just have to bring your best and give everything on the ground and later on, whatever happens, happens. But when he is around, there is no mediocrity, you can't be mediocre in the field, that's what I feel.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On his dynamics with Kuldeep Yadav, Chakravarthy believes their combination offers balance: \u201cSo, Kuldeep is definitely one of the most experienced bowlers right now in the pool of players that we have and he has done amazingly well and we kind of complement each other because I bowl at the speeds of 95 km per hour and he bowls around 85 km per hour, so we kind of complement each other and he has more revs and more turn, I have more speed and bounce, so till now it's been working well for us. Hopefully, we can do the same thing that we have been doing in the World Cup, also.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He also revealed how the Asia Cup preparation was insulated from off-field distractions: \u201cOur primary goal when we landed there was to win the cup only, not to look at other things. Our focus was always to win the cup and win against all the sides, and go unbeaten in the tournament, so that we can feel stronger in the World Cup. If you ask me, what I saw is that almost all the players switched off their social media accounts only when they had to post something after the match. But none of them actually, because we were in another country, maybe I don't know how it was there in India right now at that time, but in the UAE it was just all quiet, there was no hush-hush at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n