India, Aug. 30 -- India have always looked more in sync with the T20 format but that readiness has scaled envious levels with the emergence of a squad handpicked from IPL after the 2024 T20 World Cup win. Varun Chakravarthy epitomises that efficacy with a no-nonsense bowling approach. The slow bowler can turn the ball both ways, has decent pace variation and can be very miserly. In short, he is ideal for the shortest format.

So far, this has been Chakravarthy's year. Player-of-the-Series in the T20Is against England, India's wildcard in their victorious Champions Trophy campaign, followed by an IPL where he took 17 wickets at an economy of 7.66, Chakravarthy's evolution has been steady and sure.

It didn't seem so in 2022, when after yea...