Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has emerged as Team India's reliable weapon in the shortest format of the game. The 33-year-old mystery spinner was the only reason India could dream of winning the second T20I at St. George's Park in Gqeberha after posting just 124 runs in their 20 overs.
Varun's 5/17 helped India come roaring back into the contest as they had the Proteas on the mat with seven down for 86 on the board. Varun, 33, brought all his experience into play and got the big wickets of Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.
If it wasn't for a few lusty blows that came out of Gerald Coetzee's willow, India would have sealed the game in their favour and taken an unassailable lead in the series.
Varun has been enjoying a wonderful series in South Africa thus far. He had also registered figures of 3/25 in his four overs in the first T20I of the series at Kingsmead in Durban and played a crucial role in helping the team win by 61 runs.
Notably, Varun has claimed eight wickets in the ongoing series at an economy rate of 5.25 runs per over. He requires two more wickets to break Ravichandran Ashwin's record for the most wickets (9) by an Indian in a T20I bilateral series.
R Ashwin had claimed 9 wickets during Sri Lanka's T20I tour of India in 2016. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi equalled Ashwin's record during Australia's T20I tour of India in November-December 2023, by taking eight wickets in the series.
With two more T20Is remaining in the ongoing series against South Africa, Varun has a realistic chance of shattering Ashwin and Bishnoi's joint record. The third T20I between India and South Africa will be played on Wednesday (November 13) at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
