Coming into IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling was hampered by injuries with Harshit Rana, Akash Deep and Matheesha Pathirana all missing in action or ruled out for the entirety of the season. The laundry list of injuries forced the 2024 champions to rely on replacements and inexperienced bowlers. What also went against them was the struggles of their spin twins Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine which left them winless after the first six games of the season.
The side’s poor run coincided with Chakaravarthy’s form leaving the mystery spinner wicketless in his first three games before he sat out the next couple of games due to an injury. After returning to the team on April 17 vs Gujarat Titans, Chakaravarthy looked to have found his rhythm again, picking up his first wicket of the season and finishing the game with figures of 2/32. Although Kolkata lost the game, the signs of improvement were there for everyone to see.
Chakaravarthy followed it up with a magical spell of 3/14 against the Rajasthan Royals at home and then followed it up with 2 wickets vs Lucknow Super Giants. On Sunday, against the high-flying SRH batting order, Chakaravarthy, who finished with figures of 3/36, kept his composure, despite not starting well in his first over.
“Varun bhaiya had a tough start to the season,” acknowledged Angkrish Raghuvanshi after the match against SRH. We know his magic, and when he is in his element, I don’t think any batter can play him,” Raghuvanshi added.
Chakaravarthy’s heroics went a long way in Kolkata triggering a collapse in the SRH ranks with the home team failing to take advantage of a blistering start.
“Chakravarthy was able to take wickets even after we put him under pressure in those first couple of overs,” said SRH Head Coach Daniel Vettori.”I think they found a length with the spinners in particular, and wickets in T20 games in the IPL are the biggest currency, and that’s what they managed to do the whole time,” the former New Zealand spinner added.
A growing perception among teams, pundits and batters regarding Chakarvarthy’s poor form was that if the 34-year-old is attacked early in his spell, he increases his pace under pressure. However, that was not the case on Sunday. Although SRH batters tried to apply pressure, Chakaravarthy continued to vary his pace on his own terms.
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Similar to Chakaravarthy, Narine, who took scalps for 31 runs, also did not start his spell by taking the new ball against the left-hand heavy SRH top order in the powerplay. The West Indian dragged his length too short to start which enabled both Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head to get going. But once the ball got older and softer, Narine got his grip on the ball better and his execution was finer.
“As the ball got older, I think it was probably more the softness of the ball rather than the pitch,” Vettori said. “It’s two world-class spinners who’ve plied their trade for a long time and been so successful for KKR. And then the wicket just held up enough,” Vettori added.
Vettori also analysed the SRH batting plan, which did not work out. “We had an opportunity just to get through that period to try and set up for the last four, five overs once the spinners had finished their allotment of overs. But just the losing of wickets at crucial times and probably the manner as well, where we had the opportunity, as you said, to get through that period and to lose those wickets. And that fashion just held us back,” he said.
Whenever KKR have won games, Chakaravarthy has played a key part by picking 73 wickets at an average of just 15.37, compared to losing, where the wickets tally drops down to 33, and the average goes up to 42.73. This is a similar tale to Narine, who has picked up 120 wickets at an average of 22.43 and 79 wickets at an average of 30.08.
