Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared his thoughts on Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling after the semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, saying the spinner’s confidence drops when the batsmen attack him at the start of his spell.India reached the final after beating England by seven runs in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. Chakravarthy had a tough outing in the match as he defended a total of 253 runs.
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The spinner conceded 64 runs and picked up one wicket. He became the joint second most expensive bowling spell in a T20 World Cup match. He equaled Sanath Jayasuriya’s record of 0/64 for Sri Lanka against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 2007.
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“What’s happening with Varun is not that teams are attacking him or picking him. Everyone knows Adil Rashid has googlies. Teams attacking or reading bowlers is normal – it happens to every cricketer. But if it happens, you have to tactic. You can’t miss lengths. Line and length variations with speed variations are important. Varun, you need to talk to ‘Ashishwin’,” Aashwin said.“Every time he’s attacked in advance, the confidence goes down further because he knows he’s catching up. I’m tired of saying it over and over again. I’ve been saying it for the last few games. Don’t bowl to the lefty,” he added.The most expensive bowling figures in a T20 World Cup match were recorded in this edition when Saurabh Netravalkar of the United States returned 0/65 against India.Chakravarthy now has the joint second-highest bowling figures for India across all T20 Internationals. Prasidh Krishna holds the record with 0/68 against Australia in Guwahati in 2023, while Yuzvendra Chahal also had figures of 0/64 against South Africa in Durban in 2018.India will take on New Zealand in the final of the tournament on Sunday, March 8 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.The two teams also reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and will meet again in the final of the ICC tournament almost a year later.
