Varun Chakravarthy Biography

Not every cricketing journey begins in childhood academies some begin with resilience.In a sport where early success is celebrated, Varun proved timing matters more than age.Rejections shaped him; patience defined him.

Personal Overview

Full Name: Varun Chakravarthy Vinod
Date of Birth: 29 August 1991
Birthplace: Bidar, Karnataka, India
Age: 34years (as of early 2026)
Height: 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Role: Bowler
Education: Kendriya Vidyalaya CLRI and St. Patrick’s School in Chennai.He obtained a bachelor’s degree in architecture from SRM University.
Estimated Net Worth: ₹40–45 crore
Teams: Tamil Nadu, Kolkata Knight Riders,India

Early Life

Varun Chakravarthy Vinod was born on 29 August 1991 in Bidar, Karnataka, to Vinod Chakravarthy, an ITS officer working for BSNL.

His father is of half-Tamil and half-Malayali descent, while his mother is a Kannadiga.

He was brought up in Adyar, Chennai.

Varun did his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya CLRI and St. Patrick’s School in Chennai.

He initially played cricket as a wicket-keeper but quit the sport to focus on academics.

He obtained a bachelor’s degree in architecture from SRM University.

At the age of 25, he gave up his architect career to pursue cricket professionally.

While starting out as a pace bowler, he turned to spin bowling after a knee injury in early 2017 that kept him out of action for six months.

Domestic Career

Varun came into the limelight during the 2018 season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), where his nine wickets at an economy rate of 4.70 helped Madurai Panthers win their maiden TNPL title.

He made his List A debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2018-19 season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on 20 September 2018.

He was the leading wicket-taker for Tamil Nadu in the tournament, with 22 dismissals in nine matches.

He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2018-19 edition of the Ranji Trophy on 12 November 2018.

He took 18 wickets in six matches for Tamil Nadu at the 2024–25 Vijay Hazare Trophy and finished second on the wicket-takers’ list behind Arshdeep Singh.

International Career

In October 2020, Varun was named in India’s Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their away series against Australia.

However, on 9 November 2020, he was ruled out of the series after suffering an injury.

In February 2021, he was named in India’s T20I squad for their home series against England, but did not make it to the playing XI.

In June 2021, Varun was named in India’s One Day International (ODI) and T20I squads for their away series against Sri Lanka.

He made his T20I debut on 25 July 2021 in the first match of the series, and took the wicket of the Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka.

In September 2021, he was named in the Indian squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

However, he went wicket-less in his three appearances in the tournament.

In October 2024, Varun made his international comeback after nearly three years in the first match of the T20I series against Bangladesh, and took three wickets.

He took his maiden T20I five-wicket haul when he finished with figures of 5/17 in the second match of the away series against South Africa on 10 November 2024.

He finished as the highest wicket taker of the series with 12 dismissals in four matches.

In early 2025, he won the Player of the series award in the five-match T20I series against England, after taking 14 wickets including his second five-wicket haul (5/24) during the third match of the series.

He made his ODI debut in the subsequent ODI series against England.

At 33 years and 164 days old, he became the second oldest ODI debutant for India after Farokh Engineer.

In February 2025, Varun was named in India’s 15-member squad for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.

He took 5/42 in a group stage match against New Zealand, his maiden ODI five-wicket haul in his second ODI appearance.

He took two wickets each in the semifinal against Australia and in the final against New Zealand.

He finished as the tournament’s joint second-highest wicket-taker with nine wickets in three matches at an average of 15.11, as India won the tournament.

He was subsequently named in the Team of the Tournament by the International Cricket Council.

He was part of the Indian squad for the 2025 Asia Cup held in September 2025.

He finished as the second highest wicket taker for India behind Kuldeep Yadav, with seven wickets in six matches, as India won the title.

He was a member of the Indian team that won the 2025 Champions Trophy and the 2025 Asia Cup.

In December 2025, he became the highest rated Indian bowler ever in the ICC rankings for Twenty20 Internationals with 818 points.

Currently he is the main key bowler of India and was named for the T20I 2026 World Cup Squad of Indian Team.

IPL

In December 2018, Varun was bought by the Kings XI Punjab in the player auction for the 2019 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the price of ₹8.4 crore.

Punjab invested heavily in his “mystery spin,” but injuries limited his impact.

He played only a handful of matches and struggled to find rhythm in his debut season.

He made his Twenty20 debut for the team on 27 March 2019 in a match against Kolkata Knight Riders.

His first over went for 25 runs, the highest number of runs conceded by a bowler on debut in the IPL.

He played just the one match in the season and was released by the Kings XI Punjab ahead of the 2020 IPL auction.

In the auction ahead of the 2020 IPL season, he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for ₹4 crore.

On 24 October 2020, he took his first five-wicket haul in the IPL, with figures of 5 wickets for 20 runs, against the Delhi Capitals.

He finished as the team’s highest wicket-taker in the season with 17 wickets.

On 3 May 2021, Varun, and his teammate Sandeep Warrier, tested positive for COVID-19.

As a result, the match between the Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore was called off, and the tournament was later suspended.

In 2022 KKR retained Varun ahead of the mega auction, underlining his value to the franchise. Though the season was mixed, he remained a key tactical option.

In 2023-24 His economy and control kept him central to KKR’s bowling plans.

He was the second-highest wicket-taker in the 2024 IPL season with 21 dismissals at an average of 19.14 and economy rate of 8.04.

He was the part of Kolkata Knight Rider’s 2024 IPL Title.

His tenure is still going on with Kolkata Knight Rider’s.

Records

• One of the most expensive uncapped players in IPL history (₹8.4 crore in 2019 auction).
• Key contributor in KKR’s run to the IPL 2021 Final.
• Multiple seasons with an economy rate under 7.5, highlighting his control in middle overs.
• Among the leading wicket-takers for KKR in consecutive seasons during 2020–21.

Fun and Interesting Facts

• Before becoming a professional cricketer, Varun completed a degree in architecture and even worked in the field. Cricket was actually his second career choice!
• He didn’t begin as a bowler. In his early cricketing days in Chennai, he trained as a wicketkeeper-batter before reinventing himself as a spinner.
• Unlike most Indian stars, Varun didn’t come through the Under-19 spotlight. He made his IPL debut at 27 proving it’s never too late.
• He’s known for bowling multiple variations leg-break, googly, carrom ball, slider, flipper often without changing his action much, making him hard to read.
• There was a phase when he stepped away from the sport to focus on his professional career. His comeback story is one of resilience.
• Varun is known for closely analyzing batters’ weaknesses before matches treating every spell like a chess game.
• Varun made a cameo appearance in the 2014 Indian Tamil-language sports drama film Jeeva as a club cricketer.

Personal Life

On 11 December 2020, he married his longtime girlfriend Neha Khedekar in Chennai.