Travis Head (L) was dismissed by the first ball he faced off Varun Chakravarthy in the Champions Trophy semifinal (AP Photos)IND vs AUS Champions Trophy 2025: On match eve, R Ashwin had suggested that Varun Chakravarthy be given the new ball against Travis Head and that he can bowl from over the wicket to the left-handed opener. “If Rohit has to play with Head’s head, then he has to hand the new ball to Varun. Tell him ‘khulke daalo’ like Ravi (Shastri) bhai would, give it to Varun and ask him to bowl over the stumps. Head shows all his three stumps and then clears his leg and hits it over the field. Varun Chakravarthy with new ball might give India an edge. It will be a mouth watering contest,” Ashwin had said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin was proved right, but with a difference. Rohit Sharma didn’t give the new ball or first-change to Varun, but brought him on as second spinner, after Kuldeep Yadav. And Varun went about it in his own way, choosing to go around the stumps, and not over.
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It was his very first delivery to Travis Head, and there was a long-off in place. And he squeezed a wrong-one out of his fingers, and the ball deviated just a bit. Head went down town straight all right, not against the turn, but it was perhaps a touch too early in the piece against Varun. He had bashed a few against the others but Varun’s pace, release could have been waited out. But then that wouldn’t be Head. Instead he went for it.
It wasn’t a great shot even if the direction was fine – not against the turn, as there wasn’t much power behind the shot considering long-off was in place. Perhaps he thought he could chip it straighter to the sight-screen. But here he was done in by that googly that broke away just a bit.
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And something what Ashwin said, helps in understanding that final bit of deception better.
“I don’t think playing Varun is a risk. I think they are not able to read him at all. He is not beating batters on the outside edge, and that’s why I am not able to understand why they are not able to decipher him. What is setting him apart? It’s the amount of revs that is allowing the ball to drop. It’s not dropping at 89 kph; it’s dropping at high 90s. It’s unbelievable skill,” Ashwin had said.
That amount of revolutions that get the ball to drop at that speed – the wicket ball was almost 92 kmph (91.9 to be exact), and when it dropped rapidly and broke on this pitch, the combo proved too deadly for Travis Head. And the game was, potentially, turned on its head.
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