Four spinners a tempting combination after Varun's effort: Rohit Sharma ahead of semis

Dubai: India captain Rohit Sharma did not commit to following the four-spinner template in the Champions Trophy semifinal against Australia, but said Varun Chakravarthy’s splendid effort against New Zealand has made that option very “tempting.”

India played with Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel and the quartet wrecked the Kiwis, sharing nine wickets among them in their team’s 44-run win here on Sunday.

“We really need to think, even if we want to play four spinners, how we can squeeze four spinners. The reason I say it is because we are very much aware of the conditions here and we know exactly what works and what doesn't work,” Rohit said in his pre-match press conference.

“So, we will think about it, what is the right combination to go with, but it is tempting,” he added.

Chakravarthy, who came in as a replacement for rested pacer Harshit Rana, was excellent while returning with the figures of 5/42, and Rohit said the spinner is certainly in the team management’s thoughts.

“He just showed what he is capable of. Now, it is up to us to think and see how we can get that combination right. He got a game, and he did everything that was asked for.

“He has got something different about him and when he gets it right, he knocks people over and he takes 5-5. So, it is very tempting to think about what to do, which is a good headache to have. We will also assess the Australian batting lineup to see what kind of bowling options will work against them,” he detailed.

Rohit lauds Chakravarth

During the course of his match-winning effort against the Kiwis, the Tamil Nadu spinner had also rinsed away the memories of his modest outing against Pakistan in the 2021 T20 WC at this stadium.

Rohit explained the improvements Chakravarthy has made in the interim.

“He has become more accurate now from the last time he played for India in 2021. There was a little bit of inexperience in him as well because he hadn't played a lot of cricket.

“But right now in the last two or three years he has played a lot of cricket whether it's domestic cricket, IPL and now for India in T20s and now the ODIs as well. So, he understands his bowling really well,” he said.

The Mumbai man said Chakravarthy has put in a lot of hard yards into his craft of late, which is now reflecting in his wicket column.

“You know, some of our batters also couldn't figure that (variations) out , which is always nice. His pace variation now is superb. When you have a little bit of mystery, you don't want to be a one-dimensional bowler and bowl with the same speed.

“You need something different, the pace variation and the accuracy as well. So, he has worked on both and now you see that he is getting a lot of wickets which is a good sign for us as a team,” he added.

Drafting Chakravarthy into India’s CT squad ahead of players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mohammed Siraj had raised some questions.

Rohit explained the rationale. “It is just the talent. If there is something really special about that particular player, you want to fast track him. Certain formats require a certain skill set and whenever we look at these kinds of players, if the talent is there, then you don't want to shy away from blooding them.”

Rohit did not read too much into the criticism of stacking the side with spinners. “There will be questions asked, there will be few eyebrows raised but as a team you want to do certain things which can help you win games. So, it's important to understand that talent and I have been here long enough to understand what kind of players are talented.

“With Varun especially, we had to sacrifice a batsman which we thought it's only five games in this tournament and it's very unlikely that batter is going to play at any stage unless there is an injury."

‘Middle-order did well’

India’s top three — Rohit, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill — had an off-game against New Zealand, leaving the side reeling at 30 for three. But Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya batted well to take India to a defendable total.

Rohit said middle-order batters getting runs was important for the team during the business end of the tournament.

“The middle-order is very experienced but to just get some batting time in the middle and to get those runs and get that fighting total was very very important from our standpoint.

“Shreyas, KL, Hardik and Axar, they batted brilliantly which is a good sign for us going into the semis because we wanted to have these kind of situations where we are slightly under pressure and then the middle-order takes us through to that target which they did,” he said.

‘Axar’s improvement is superb’

Rohit also praised Axar for repaying the think tank’s faith in him while promoting to No. 5 ahead of KL Rahul.

“The clear message was given to him when we started the ODI series against England. That no matter what, you will bat at No. 5. The kind of improvement he has shown with the bat over the last year or so is superb and that is where we felt that we can utilise him in the middle.

“He likes to take the game on, likes to play his shots. And sometimes when you are in trouble, you want to always take that positive route. He showed it in the T20 World Cup final (2024) which was a very, very crucial knock,” he added.