DC vs KKR: Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav vs Varun Chakravarthy – India’s spin trio to face internal battle | cricket news
New Delhi: The encounter between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Friday night offers an interesting subplot. India will see three frontline spin options in the T20 setup – Varun Chakravarthy, Akshar Patel And -Kuldeep Yadav. Although they were part of the pinnacle of India’s T20 World Cup title defense in March, the trio have faced struggles since then.Go beyond limits with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!For KKR’s Varun, problems started arising during that successful T20 World Cup campaign. Although he emerged as the joint-highest wicket-taker with Jasprit Bumrah with 14 wickets, rivals got a better idea of his mystery spin from the Super-8 stage. He has taken just five wickets in his last five World Cup matches and his tournament economy has peaked at nine.
His poor form in the early stages of the IPL continued as Varun went wicketless in the first two matches before being ruled out due to a hand injury. In fact, Varun had to wait until his fourth match this season, against Gujarat Titans, to feature in the wicket-takers’ list as he took 2/34 in Ahmedabad.However, once he got back between the wickets, the 34-year-old showed signs of returning to his best. In recent matches, he has made good use of the crease and come up with subtle variations to gain advantage. He has taken eight wickets in the last three matches with a hat-trick in KKR’s wins.KKR mentor dwayne bravo Looks like the injury has taken a toll on Varun. The former West Indies all-rounder said, “Varun is a world-class spinner and had recently come from a busy World Cup. Sometimes a break at the right time is important. No one doubted his ability. The group has supported him throughout.”
Varun Chakravarthy of Kolkata Knight Riders (ANI photo)
On the other hand, this season is going like a nightmare for Kuldeep Yadav of Delhi Capitals. There seems to be a battle to warm the bench for most part of India’s T20 World Cup campaign. He has been guilty of bowling too short and has taken only seven wickets at more than 10 runs per over in 10 matches.However, Kuldeep’s teammate David Miller supported the left-arm wrist spinner. “He’s a great character and it’s important for me to have guys like that playing consistently, because he’s a match-winner. So take the good with the bad. There have been one or two games where he hasn’t bowled the best he could have,” Miller said.However, DC captain Axar has fared better than his spin-bowling partner. Although he is the leading wicket-taker for the team this season, nine wickets in 10 matches is not a statistic the left-arm spinner will be very proud of. Apart from this, some of the decisions taken by Akshar as captain have been criticized and he might be facing the consequences of it.