The 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction saw several surprises as some big names like Dale Steyn, Brendon McCullum and Hashim Amla found no takers, while rookies like Varun Chakravarthy and Shivam Dube evoked massive bidding wars between the franchises.
Despite the fact that Varun does not have any IPL experience, he had many takers which led to a bidding war before Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) finally bagged him for a whopping Rs 8.40 crore. The Tamil Nadu mystery spinner, had a base price of Rs 20 lakh but went on to become the joint most expensive buy along with Jaydev Unadkat.
Former India cricketer Hemang Badani, who featured in 40 ODIs for the country, spoke on Varun's ability and pointed out why the Tamil Nadu boy grabbed everyone's attention.
"About three years ago, I first saw Varun and back then he wasn't even a spinner so forget about being a mystery spinner. I'm very happy that he has become a millionaire but the thing that has stuck me about him, is his consistency in spinning," Badani was quoted as saying by IPL's official broadcaster Star Sports.
"He (Varun) is extremely skilled as he can spin with both old and new balls and in fact, he has about 50 percent of his balls as dot balls. Another thing I like about him is that he handles pressure really well. Like IPL is far bigger platform which carries a lot of expectations and pressure and it will be exciting to see how he handles it," the 42-year-old further pointed out.
Significantly, Varun bowled to Chennai Super King (CSK) players in the nets, which helped him improve his skills which later helped him to come up with several impressive performances for Madurai Panthers in the 2018 Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).
"Varun is a product of the Tamil Nadu Premier League and if not for TNPL, the world wouldn't have known him," Badani said.
"Yes, its very important to have such tournaments (TNPL)."
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