Rohit Sharma reveals: 'Varun Chakarvarthy keeps his mystery weapon hidden from us', says India's Champions Trophy spinner

After their impressive 3-0 series win against England in the ODI series, questions were raised about Varun Chakaravarthy's place in India's XI for the Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh in Dubai. Head coach Gautam Gambhir remained tight-lipped about the possibility of Varun starting ahead of Kuldeep Yadav, but did mention that he was included in the squad as a late replacement for Yashasvi Jaiswal, with hopes that he could make an impact and help India secure victories. India captain Rohit Sharma echoed similar sentiments in the pre-match press conference, emphasizing the importance of having match-winners in the squad. It remains to be seen whether Varun will be given the nod in the crucial opening game against Bangladesh, but his selection certainly adds depth and variety to India's bowling attack.

Rohit said the selectors and the team management liked whatever they saw of Chakaravarthy in the T20Is and believed that he could make a difference even in the ODIs in a big tournament like the Champions Trophy. "He's got something different which is why he's here. Whatever we've seen of him in the last 8-9 months, we wanted to bring him here and see what he can do for Team India on a big stage. Let's see how much he can execute the same on the field," Rohit told reporters on Wednesday.

Chakaravarthy picked up 10-plus wickets in the last two T20I series that India played against South Africa and England. With an uncanny action and release, he always keeps the batters guessing. How does Rohit play him in the nets? The India captain said Chakaravarthy doesn't bowl his variations in the nets.

"Net mein toh humko zyada variations dalta nahi hai wo. Ek his tareeke see ball dalta hai. Ho sakta hai who humko bhi nahi dikhana chahta ki usike paas kya hai. (He doesn't bowl a lot of variations in the nets. He bowls one type of delivery only. Perhaps he doesn't want us even us to know what he's got)," Rohit said, quickly adding that he has no problems if he can pull off his magic tricks in the match. "That is a good. If he's got certain weapon that he wants to just put it out there when it actually matters, I'm more than happy," he added.

Varun made his ODI debut in the England series but played only one match. He and Kuldeep Yadav are the two specialists spinners while the other options in that department are Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, who all are very capable batters.

The spin-heavy side has three fast-bowling options in the form of Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana with Hardik Pandya being the sole pace all-rounder.

"There only two spinners, the rest are all-rounders. They can bat and bowl," said Rohit when asked about the spin-heavy composition of the side.

"We play to our strengths. The three all-rounders give a different dimension to the squad, they add a lot to the squad. We wanted to have players with two skills rather than one," said Rohit ahead of the tournament opener against Bangladesh here.

On the event taking place after eight years, Rohit added: "It is a very important tournament like all ICC events are. We have to do lot of things right to hold the trophy."

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