NEW DELHI: India's mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy feels that the pitches in the ongoing Asia Cup have offered little assistance to tweakers in the early stages of matches, but it has been relatively easier to extract some purchase off the track during the final 10 overs.
Chakravarthy, who has claimed four wickets in four games at an impressive economy rate of 5.85, has also been unlucky, with several catches dropped off his bowling throughout the tournament.
When asked if he preferred bowling in the latter stages of the innings, the Tamil Nadu mystery spinner nodded in agreement, citing a softer ball and the more spread-out field as key contributing factors.
"The harder the ball is, it definitely is not getting much purchase for a spinner. Talking from a spinner's perspective, if you are bowling in the powerplay or right after the powerplay, there's not much help from the wicket. But as the game progresses and as the field spreads out, it's getting better," he explained.
Chakravarthy said that run-containment isn't an option in Powerplays and one needs to go for wickets.
"In Powerplay, the only aim is to look for wickets. It's just looking for that one ball if it pitches on that right spot and it turns a little bit and it can edge it. It's about looking for that because that's my role in the team.
"Even if I go for little runs, my aim is to keep on attacking and try to look for more wickets," he said.
He said against Bangladesh too, once the ball got older, he found himself to be more effective.
"It was just that initially the ball was skidding on more and as the ball started getting older, I started getting a little bit more purchase from the wicket," said Chakravarthy.
India entered the finals after the 41-run win on Wednesday and will be taking on old foes Pakistan in the summit clash in all likelihood on Sunday.
(With PTI Inputs)
