Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane stated that the squad is optimistic about Varun Chakravarthy’s return to form in the forthcoming IPL 2026 season. Even though Varun finished the T20 World Cup 2026 with the same number of wickets as Jasprit Bumrah, he had a terrible period during the second half of the competition.
The spinner went for 64 runs against England in the semi-final after leaking runs from the beginning of the Super 8 round. Despite taking 14 wickets in the end, his economy rate of 9.25 was concerning. In the process, he lost his position as the top bowler in the ICC T20I rankings. Rahane, however, claimed that Varun was attempting to take wickets at pivotal moments in the match and that he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
The KKR captain also believes that Varun was able to regroup in preparation for the upcoming season after a break following the T20 World Cup.
“When you have a long career in T20 cricket, firstly, you tend to have such things. It’s almost like a batter sometimes not getting runs. And that’s how cricket is. I think with Varun, that’s one of the things, he’s played so much T20 cricket over the past year… So a lot of teams obviously will try things (against him). Sometimes the conditions are not conducive to their style of bowling. You also need to understand he’s always bowling the tough overs for the team. He’s bowling in the Powerplay,” Rahane said during the team’s first news conference this season at Eden Gardens.
“He’s bowling in phases of the game where two batters are set. He’s coming in and trying to pick wickets. So I wouldn’t say there’s anything necessarily wrong with him. He’s had a good 10-day break after the World Cup. I think that break is sometimes what a cricketer requires. And the beauty of team sport is that sometimes if Varun doesn’t turn up, someone else does.”
With 99 wickets under his belt, Varun is KKR’s third-highest wicket-taker in IPL history. They won the IPL trophy in 2024 in large part because of his solid relationship with Sunil Narine.
According to Rahane, the squad won’t place any pressure on the spinner and doesn’t mind if he occasionally has a bad day.
“And we don’t want to put that sort of pressure on Varun. He’s been someone who’s delivered year after year. So there’s nothing wrong…The conditions and sometimes just the timing… There’s always an expectation from him to pick up wickets… As players, everyone goes through that phase where they’re trying really hard, they’re preparing really well, but they are not able to perform on the field.
“I thought in the World Cup, opposition batters played really well. Let’s give credit to them rather than talking about Varun. As a group, we are really confident about Varun… So as a captain and also as a group, as a team, we are not really worried,” Rahane said.
On March 29, KKR will play their first IPL 2026 match against the Mumbai Indians.
