Kuldeep Yadav or Varun Chakravarthy? Muttiah Muralidaran reveals his choice for the 2021 T20 World Cup

Team India recently completed their white-ball tour in Sri Lanka. Both nations first met in the One-Day International (ODI) series and then faced each other in the T20 International (T20I) series. While the visitors clinched the ODI leg 2-1, the hosts made a comeback to capture the T20I series 2-1.

During the limited-overs fixtures, spinners from both sides were the major attraction. This series was also considered as a trial to find out the best combination, especially the spin attack, as the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 will take place in Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Yuzvendra Chahal and Rahul Chahar were impressive with their individual heroics, and the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy were also good. Both Kuldeep and Varun didn’t get many opportunities, but the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowling duo proved that it would be hard for selectors to ignore them for selection concerning the T20 World Cup squad.

Meanwhile, legendary Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has picked his choice between Varun and Kuldeep. Murali went with Kuldeep over Varun because of his amazing wicket-taking ability. The Sri Lankan legend also mentioned that it is unfortunate that KKR didn’t offer him many matches in the IPL.

“For India, I will wait and see this IPL and how it goes in the UAE and see the performances and who’s in form. My pick will be Kuldeep Yadav because he has proven himself as a wicket-taking bowler. Unfortunately, the IPL team is not picking him for the side,” said Muralitharan as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Many fans rate Varun as the next Ajantha Mendis or Sunil Narine simply because he is also a mystery bowler and batters find it quite challenging to pick him. However, Muralitharan reckoned that there is still a long way to go for Varun to reach the level of Mendis and Narine.

“Varun Chakravarthy is a very good bowler, a very good option for India and also for the IPL team. I still think he is not like Ajantha Mendis or Sunil Narine’s level when they came into the team, and they mesmerized the batsmen. He is not mesmerizing the batsmen, but he’s decent enough, and he is giving a good performance,” added Murali.