Lots of tears in the dressing room: Chakaravarthy after KKR's first win

Varun Chakaravarthy revealed that after KKR registered their first win of the season in their seventh attempt, he saw a "lot of tears in the dressing room which we didn't see in the year that we won the IPL in 2024."

He called the four-wicket win a "very very significant win," coming after things finally came together for KKR. Chakaravarthy said he had sufficiently recovered from two finger fractures on his non-bowling left hand, which helped him utilise a helpful pitch at Eden Gardens.

"Unfortunately, before the first match itself, I fractured one of my fingers and in another match, I fractured another finger," Chakaravarthy said. "So, I couldn't use my left hand itself. Fielding was totally out of the question. I am trying to manage but it is still a little painful."

On the Kolkata pitch, he added: "Generally, it starts getting a bit slower. I am not saying it slows down so much but today, I felt it was a 180-190 wicket. Both the teams struggled with batting."

Chakaravarthy, who has endured a difficult phase since the T20 World Cup, returned figures of 3 for 14 in his four overs and was named Player of the Match. He said he did not want to read too much into this performance.

"Look, just because I have taken three wickets today, I don't want to make a sweeping statement," Chakaravarthy said. "That's the nature of the game. Next match, if the wicket has nothing in it, that's going to happen to every spinner. Once the pitches start slowing down, that's how we start coming into the game. So, it's the nature of the game and we can't change it."

When Chakaravarthy came on to bowl in the ninth over, RR were 79 for 0. He needed just four deliveries to strike, removing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his 200th T20 wicket. He then had Dhruv Jurel stumped and captain Riyan Parag bowled in an uninterrupted four-over spell that turned the game. He insisted little had changed in his bowling, except that he expanded his line of attack.

"I didn't change my length or my speed," Chakaravarthy said. "I am just changing the line of attack a little. More cramping lines, as in, not in the fourth stump line, wide of off, legside wide. I am working on all the lines right now."

But on a helpful pitch, he returned to his strengths. "Once there is something in the pitch, I go back to my strength. My strength is to keep attacking the stumps," Chakaravarthy said. "But if there is nothing in the pitch, that's when bowlers start searching, they start getting confused. It has happened to the best of the best. So, no one can be judged with just one match of good performance and bad performance also."

He also pointed to KKR's difficult start to the season, with injuries disrupting plans early, and credited the support staff and team management.

"We have not been winning and there are many outside noises which come and which affect the players. But finally, we turned out in the better side today," Chakaravarthy said. "We started this tournament with many injuries and it actually crippled us before even the tournament started. So, I would like to give credit to the coaches, the head coach also, Abhishek Nayar."

"If you're taking up a team in such a condition, you have a lot of work to do and you need a lot of courage for that. So, he has taken up the team from a very tough situation. It's going to take some time for build up. And I think slowly, step by step, baby step, one win here, one win there, we will be back on track."