Spinner Varun Chakravathy’s maiden five-wicket haul in T20 Internationals might have come in a losing cause for India in the second T20I against South Africa in Gqeberha on Sunday, but the 33-year-old is happy with the role clarity provided by head coach Gautam Gambhir on his comeback to the national side after a three-year hiatus.

With only 125 runs to defend against a power-packed Proteas batting lineup, India weren’t the favourites when South Africa began their chase on Sunday. But the visitors shifted the momentum in their favour as Varun came into the attack.

In his quota of four overs, he snapped his maiden five-wicket haul for India, conceding merely 17 runs for the same. The spell, albeit in a losing cause, shed more light on the recent form of the Tamil Nadu tweaker in India’s T20I side.

Having made his debut back in 2021, Varun claimed two wickets in his first six games and was dropped from the side for three years. Since his comeback in India’s shortest format team after the ICC T20 World Cup this year, the leg-spinner has taken 13 wickets from five appearances, averaging 8.84 with an economy rate of 5.75.

Varun credited Gambhir for providing him with role clarity which has helped him in his recent outings for the team.

“We played the Bangladesh tour and he (Gambhir) was coaching the team and we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity. He told me even if you go for 30, 40 runs, it doesn’t matter. All you have to look for is to pick wickets. So that’s your role in the team,” he revealed.

Varun, who was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad that lifted the Indian Premier League (IPL) title earlier this year with Gambhir as team mentor, also opened up on how the franchise league and domestic cricket helped pave the way for his recent exploits.

“I had to go to the drawing board and check out all my videos and what I figured out was that I was bowling side-spin, and it was not working out in the higher level, so I had to change everything about my bowling.

“The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. I started playing a lot of the domestic leagues in India and that definitely helped me understand my game better and that’s what helped me,” he said.

Coming in to bowl the last over of the batting powerplay in Gqeberha, Varun removed the Proteas skipper Aiden Markram before getting the better of Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.

Despite his exploits though, South Africa eventually inched past the line by three wickets as Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) saw the game through for the hosts for a series-levelling win.

India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav lauded Varun for his incredible spell. “In a T20 game someone getting a five-for defending 125 and in this situation, it’s incredible. He worked really hard on his game and he has been waiting for this stage, and everyone enjoyed it. Brilliant performance from him,” Suryakumar said.