'He has become a little tough mentally, yet he is smiling a lot and taking everything in his stride.'
India's T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav believes spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been a different player since his comeback to international cricket last year.
Chakravarthy returned excellent figures of 5/42 in India's convincing victory over New Zealand in Dubai on Sunday, which helped the team to top their group on way to the semi-finals of the tournament.
"The way he left in 2021 and the way he has come back, there are two different Varun Chakravarthys," Suryakumar said in Mumbai on Tuesday.
"He has become a little tough mentally, yet he is smiling a lot and taking everything in his stride irrespective of what happens on the field which is very good from a cricketer's point of view."
The selection of Chakravarthy, who did not feature in the first two group matches, proved to be a masterstroke.
"I am really happy for him. He deserves everything, what he has been doing and all the recognition for what has been happening with him," India's star batter in T20Is added.
"He has been a really hard working athlete since 2021; I have been watching him and have spoken with him a lot of times since he made his comeback to international cricket."
Suryakumar said it is important for teams to pick players with specific skill set even though the focus has primarily been on all-rounders in the shortest format.
"At the end of the day it's all about your skill and what skills you offer to the team. If it's in the best interest of the team, then you have to pick those bowlers."
Suryakumar also said that Mumbai Indians will not face any leadership conundrum in the IPL given that they have each of the current Indian captains in their side.
"As soon as we go to our house, it's like a family, so we don't think about that, that we have three captains or we have four captains. We think that we are one team," he said.
"It's as good as an institution where we have learned a lot, grown over there, and gone on to play for India. We work as a unit when we get into that dressing room," he added.
While Hardik Pandya is Mumbai Indians' captain, the five-time winners also boast of India's Test leader Rohit Sharma, T20I skipper Suryakumar and also Jasprit Bumrah, who had led India in two Tests on the Australia tour.
"Yes, there are a lot of captains in the team, but we sit together... five people, seven, 10, we take a call... how do we want to take the ship forward?"
The 34-year-old Suryakumar said he wants to continue focusing on all formats for now.
"When I started playing my cricket, it was all red ball. Slowly, I came into white ball formats and then I was introduced to ODIs and then T20Is," he said.
"It's important, that's why I play all the formats because I enjoy the sport. I love playing this sport with a lot of passion and I take one format at a time."
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