Varun Chakaravarthy takes cheeky dig at India's Champions Trophy home advantage critics: ‘A lot of distance…’

Varun Chakravarthy was a key part of India’s ICC Champions Trophy campaign, arguably their best bowler as he came in and dominated opposition batting lineups to provide an additional threat through the middle overs. This included a performance of 2-45 in the finals against New Zealand, helping India to the trophy as the team chased down 254.

While he appears to be a relatively sedate figure on the field who goes about his business without too much extravagance, Chakravarthy has also provided a look at his funnier side, getting involved in some humorous banter online through the tournament. After lifting the Champions Trophy, this included a sly dig at critics who claimed India won the tournament thanks to an undue advantage of playing all their matches in Dubai.

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Posting his celebration pictures on Instagram, Chakravarthy can be sipping a cup of coffee with the Champions Trophy in his hands in a hotel, along with the cheekiest of captions: “A lot of distance was travelled to get a taste of this Cup.”

While India had the benefit of staying in Dubai through the entirety of the three-week tournament, and that certainly played an advantage, Chakravarthy’s own performances served as an indication of India’s triumph being the result of the skill and depth present in their ranks.

Complaints were sounded about India’s easy scheduling compared to a team such as New Zealand, who travelled from Pakistan to Dubai for their group match against India, back to Lahore for their semifinal against South Africa, and then once again back to Dubai for the final. The largest criticism of the scheduling came as South Africa were forced to travel to Dubai because of uncertainty surrounding where their semifinal would be played, before immediately flying back to Lahore on short notice.

Nevertheless, India made sure that whatever advantage they did have was stretched into a winning performance in the final, after having eased through the group stages and beaten Australia in the semifinal. Varun was a key player, taking a five-fer against the Kiwis in the groups, before taking the opening wicket of Will Young to set the stage for a winning performance for the win in blue to clinch their first ICC ODI trophy since 2013.