Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 20 : Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar brushed off any concerns about the form of spinner Varun Chakravarthy, saying that he is team's "franchise player" who has delivered consistently every season and a break after the T20 World Cup could prove to be beneficial for him.
Rahane and Nayar spoke during the pre-season presser held in Kolkata. The three-time champions will start their bid for the fourth trophy by facing five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in their campaign opener in Mumbai on March 29.
The T20 WC was a mixed tournament for Varun. Even though he finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets at an average of 20.50, it was a tournament of two halves. During the group stage, his bowling had the venom and mystery that had made him such a scary bowler to face leading up to the tournament, as he took nine wickets. But in five matches from the Super Eight opener against South Africa till the title clash against New Zealand, he could manage just five wickets. During this phase, his economy rate skyrocketed to above 10, as compared to just above 5 during the group stage.
Speaking during the presser, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Nayar said that one tends to go through such lean patches in T20 cricket and there are a lot of factors in play, such as the amount of matches played, the conditions being suitable/unsuitable for his bowling and the phases where he bowls for his team.
"I think when you have a long career in T20 cricket, firstly you tend to have such things," Nayar said.
"It is almost like a batter sometimes not getting runs. A lot of batters score runs sometimes, but more often than not, they do not. And that is how cricket is. Varun has played a lot of T20 cricket over the past year, so a lot of factors come into play. Sometimes the conditions are not conducive to his style of bowling."
"You also need to understand he is always bowling in the back overs for the team, sometimes in the powerplay, sometimes in phases of the game where two batters are already set, coming in and trying to pick wickets. So I would not say there is anything necessarily wrong with him," he continued.
Nayar pointed out the break that Varun has got after the T20 World Cup, and the team does not want to put him under pressure because if he does not click, someone else does.
"He has got a ten-day break from the World Cup. I think that break is sometimes what a cricketer requires. The beauty of team sport is that sometimes if Varun does not turn up, someone else does. We do not want to put that sort of pressure on Varun. He has been a franchise player for us, someone who's delivered year after year," said the coach.
"There is nothing wrong. I just feel that at that point in the tournament, whatever he was trying to execute, he couldn't reach his full potential. But we try to make sure he can be at his best, because if he's at his best, you know the result will follow," he concluded.
Last season, Varun was the seventh-highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps at an average of 22.52 and an economy rate of 7.66, with best figures of 3/22. In 83 matches for KKR, Varun has taken 99 wickets at an average of 23.74, with two four-wicket hauls and best figures of 5/20.