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Varun Chakravarthy walked off the field at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday with a limp and an ice pack and the KKR camp held their breath for the next few minutes.
The mystery spinner had just delivered match-winning figures of 3 for 36 against Sunrisers Hyderabad but in the 12th over of SRH's innings a ball hit back by Ishan Kishan caught him flush on the left boot and the pain was visibly real.
He hobbled through the rest of his spell, completed his four overs without coming off, and then was substituted out of the game. After the match he addressed the injury directly and gave KKR fans the news they needed to hear.
SRH vs KKR: What Varun Chakravarhty said about the injury
Speaking at the post-match presentation after winning the Player of the Match award, Varun Chakravarthy was calm and measured about his condition. "It's just the impact pain. Still not able to put the foot fully down. But in another three days I'll be fine," he said.
It was the kind of update that allows a team to exhale, painful but not serious, manageable with rest and expected to resolve quickly before their next fixture. The fact that he pushed through the discomfort to complete his spell rather than leaving the field mid-over tells you everything about how important he considers his contribution to KKR's late-season push.
The IPL 2026 season of two halves that tells his real story
Varun Chakravarthy's IPL 2026 can be neatly divided into two very different chapters. The first half was difficult, expensive spells including a wicketless 0 for 48 against Mumbai Indians, a lack of rhythm that the hidden hand fractures clearly contributed to, and a mystery spinner who looked more like a puzzle that batters had solved.
The second half has been a completely different story. His turnaround began on April 19 against Rajasthan Royals when he took 3 for 14 in a spell that also saw him become the third player to reach 100 IPL wickets for KKR and achieve the milestone of 200 career T20 wickets.
Since that breakthrough he has taken at least two wickets in four consecutive matches and across seven appearances this season has ten wickets at an average of 22.20. The trajectory is pointing decisively upward at exactly the right time.
The Travis Head dismissal and what Varun Chakravarthy said about it
Varun Chakravarthy also spoke about his mindset in dismissing Travis Head, one of the most dangerous powerplay batters in the competition. "He was extending his hands very well. I didn't want him to do that," he said, a characteristically simple explanation that masks the tactical precision behind the delivery that ended Head's innings.
He also offered a broader observation about the tournament that has been a theme throughout the season, that spinners always struggle in the first four games of the IPL when pitches are flat and batters are in rhythm, before conditions gradually shift in their favour as the tournament progresses. "As the tournament goes on, spinners come into the game," he said.
In Varun Chakravarthy own case that has proven entirely accurate. KKR will need him fit and firing for the remainder of the season and on Sunday's evidence, injury and all, he is both.
