Three years after being sidelined following an underwhelming campaign at the 2021 T20 World Cup, Varun Chakravarthy made an impressive return to the national team, picking three wickets to architect India’s seven-wicket win in the first T20I against Bangladesh in Gwalior on Sunday.

Usually a man of few words and fewer emotions, Varun confessed to being filled with emotions while describing his return to India fold as, “It feels like a rebirth.”

Once written off after questions were raised on his fitness, one-dimensional bowling, and his mystery being unlocked by the batters, Varun has put all those demons behind himself, and proved his worth in Gwalior as the Bangladesh batters failed to pick his variations. A change in run-up coupled with a tweak in his action, and improvement in the leg-break was vivid when he almost had Towhid Hridoy with his second ball only if Nitish Kumar Reddy had not lost sight of the ball while running from deep square leg.

The Tamil Nadu tweaker, however, did not have to wait for too long, as he got Hridoy caught at long-on in his second over, and followed it up with the wickets of Jaker Ali and Rishad Hossain to register his best figures (3/31) in T20Is.

“It has been a long three years. Whenever there was a series, I would keep thinking why my name was not there. That kind of motivated me, and I felt I should not leave it like this; I should go all out and try to make a comeback. So I started playing a lot of domestic games and started giving importance to those. All the matches I played was with full intensity. I never thought if it was a lower level or higher level,” Varun said of his comeback.

For Varun, the frustration was understandable, considering the fact that he had taken 20 wickets in IPL 2023, and followed it up by becoming the second highest wicket-taker with 21 scalps in IPL 2024, and played a key role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ title run. He made a compelling case for a national recall, and his patience and hard work was finally rewarded during the ongoing series.

Gautam Gambhir, KKR’s previous mentor, and now the India head coach, might have had a role in his selection, but either way, he has proved himself for a longer stint with the Men-in-Blue.

Explaining how a technical adjustment has helped him get his rhythm back, the 33-year-old revealed that it took him almost two years to achieve perfection.

“I used to be a side-spin bowler but right now, I have completely shifted to an over-spin bowler which is a minute technical aspect of spin bowling. From side spin to over spin, it took me more than two years. In these three years, the major chunk of work which I put in was in my technical aspect,” he explained.

While the performance doesn’t mean he has cemented his place in the side with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav being India’s first-choice spinners, and there is a stiff competition with the likes of Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi, Varun is happy to be a part of a healthy competition.

“There is good competition and there is good camaraderie also. One person who was cheering me today was Ravi Bishnoi. He was coming in and passing me messages, so I can’t ask for more. And it’s actually good to have such competition so that we keep pushing each other. Someone will be better than others at one point in time and he will definitely get the Cup for India. So this competition is very much needed,” he said.

In the recently concluded Tamil Nadu Premier League, Varun played a key role in helping Ravichandran Ashwin-led Dindigul Dragons win the trophy.

Having taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series, India will take on Bangladesh in the second game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Wednesday.

Team India arrives in Delhi ahead of 2nd T20I

The Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian cricket team arrived in the national capital on Monday ahead of the second T20I here. After recording a seven-wicket victory in Gwalior on Sunday, the hosts will hope to seal the series with a win in the second game.