IPL playerIndia2019 to 2026
Varun Chakravarthy
On scorecards: CV Varun · Right-hand bat
Varun Chakravarthy, a bowler, has played eight IPL seasons for two franchises. One title came along the way.
The arrival
Varun Chakravarthy arrived through the auction: Kings XI Punjab paid ₹8.40 cr, against a base price of ₹20 lakh.
That first season brought 1 match and 1 wicket.
The peak
The best season was 2024, for Kolkata Knight Riders: 21 wickets at 7.99 runs an over, while the league's bowlers went for 9.37, with best figures of 3 for 16. Kolkata Knight Riders won the title that year. Five seasons brought 15 wickets or more (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025).
Franchise by franchise
2019, Kings XI Punjab. Bought at the 2019 auction for ₹8.40 cr. 1 match and 1 wicket.
2020 to 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders. Bought at the 2020 auction for ₹4 cr. 93 matches and 110 wickets; champions in 2024.
2 spells with two franchises in all. The longest was with Kolkata Knight Riders, 2020 to 2026.
How the wickets came
With the ball, 111 wickets in 2,142 deliveries, at 7.69 runs an over against a league rate of 8.75 for the same seasons: 1.07 an over cheaper than the typical bowler of the time, the mark of a bowler who kept things tight. There were two four-wicket hauls, and the best figures were 5 for 20.
36.2% of the balls Varun Chakravarthy bowled were dots, a higher share than 62% of the 150 bowlers with 500 balls or more; a wicket came every 19.2 balls.
The fielding record: 15 catches and 4 run-outs.
At the auction
Varun Chakravarthy has gone under the hammer twice. The highest price was ₹8.40 cr, paid by Kings XI Punjab in 2019, more than 42 times the base price. The market cooled over time: the last purchase, in 2020, cost ₹4 cr.
Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.
Where it stands
Varun Chakravarthy has made 94 IPL appearances, the latest for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2026, and has won 8 player-of-the-match awards.
Season by season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50/100 | Wkts | Econ | Best | Ct | POTM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Kings XI Punjab | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | 0/0 | 1 | 11.67 | 1/35 | 0 | ||
| 2020 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 13 | 10 | 7* | 5.0 | 66.7 | 0/0 | 17 | 6.85 | 5/20 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2021 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 17 | 2 | 2* | 2.0 | 50.0 | 0/0 | 18 | 6.54 | 3/13 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2022 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 11 | 12 | 10* | – | 66.7 | 0/0 | 6 | 8.41 | 1/22 | 2 | ||
| 2023 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 11.1 | 0/0 | 20 | 8.15 | 4/15 | 3 | 2 | |
| 2024 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 14 | 0 | – | – | – | 0/0 | 21 | 7.99 | 3/16 | 3 | 2 | Champions |
| 2025 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 13 | 1 | 1* | – | 100.0 | 0/0 | 17 | 7.66 | 3/22 | 2 | ||
| 2026 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 11 | 5 | 5 | 2.5 | 83.3 | 0/0 | 11 | 8.78 | 3/14 | 2 | 2 |
Franchise journey
- Kings XI Punjab: 2019
- Kolkata Knight Riders: 2020 to 2026
Ball-by-ball detail
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot balls faced | 60.4% |
| Balls per four | 17.7 |
| Balls per six | 53 |
| Dot balls bowled | 36.2% |
| Balls per wicket | 19.2 |
| Catches | 15 |
| Run-outs | 4 |
| Stumpings | 0 |
At the auction
Sources
- CricArcade IPL season statistics
- CricArcade IPL auction archive
- Kaggle IPL Complete Match Dataset 2008-2026, ball-by-ball, cross-checked against Cricsheet