A couple of years off cricket helped Varun Chakravarthy refresh his bowling, develop mystery spin variety and return to the sport with a bang, the Kolkata Knight Riders spinner's former captain at the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) Rohit Damodaran has said. Chakravarthy, who has been a consistent performer for KKR this IPL season, used to play divisional cricket in Chennai before being spotted by Rohit, who was captain of the Madurai Panthers in the TNPL.

"He (Chakravarthy) was initially playing first division in Chennai and also studying architecture engineering. He then took 2-3 years off and in that period he developed this 'mystery' variety while he played fourth division league in Chennai. One of our coaches told me about him and I saw him at one of our (Madurai Panthers) nets," Damodaran told IANS. Damodaran picked him in the first round of auctions itself for the bare minimum amount (Rs 50,000 or 1,00,000 he can't recall).