‘We’ll be putting our thinking caps on around how we nullify’: Gary Stead on New Zealand facing Varun Chakarvarthy | Cricket News
Wrist spinner Varun Chakarvarthy troubled the Kiwi batter on Sunday during the final group game of the Champions Trophy 2025. He ended up with a five-wicket haul, which helped India thrash New Zealand by 44 runs. The leg-spinner, since making his comeback into the India colours, has been a thorn in the flesh of the batters with his willy variations and deadly accuracy.
The Kiwi batters who did not have an answer to his tricks might have to face him in the final of the competition on Sunday yet again. New Zealand Head Coach Gary Stead would acknowledge that Chakarvarthy is a threat and the Blackcaps need to put on thinking caps to deal with him.
“We expect him to play after getting 5/42 against us in the last game. He’s a class bowler and showed his skills against us last time and he’s a big threat in the game,” Stead told reporters on Friday. “So we’ll be putting our thinking caps on around how we nullify that and how we can still score runs against him,” he added.
Hectic scheduling
The scheduling for the tournament has sparked debate after South African player David Miller’s comments on travel when both South Africa and Australia had to travel to Dubai and wait to see who would face India and the other hand to travel back to Lahore for the second semifinal to face New Zealand.
“It’s only an hour and 40-minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal,” Miller said speaking to ESPNcricinfo. “It’s early morning, it’s after a game, and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4:00 pm. And at 7:30 am, we had to come back. It doesn’t make it nice,” he added.
Stead admitted it was a bit hectic but said his side was good enough to adjust to such schedules.
“There’s no doubt that coming here off playing Lahore and we had a full day of travel yesterday, then it just takes it out of you a little bit, but we’ve got a couple of days now of a little bit of recovery and planning and training towards the game,” he would add.
