Mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy has described the three-year gap from international cricket as "tough," saying he had to completely overhaul his bowling after finding that his orthodox side-spin wasn’t working at higher levels.

The 33-year-old recorded his career-best figures of 5 for 17 in Sunday’s second T20I against South Africa, though his efforts could not prevent India from losing by three wickets.

"I had to go to the drawing board and check out all my videos. I figured out that I was bowling side spin and it was not working out in the higher levels," he told Jio Cinema.

"I had to change everything about my bowling. It took me two years and I started bowling in the local leagues and IPL also. It worked there and I have started bowling it in the international stage and it’s working out for me."

While side spin creates enough revolutions to make the ball drift sideways, over-spin generates a sharp bounce and turn.

Talking about what worked for him as he added a fifer on Sunday to the three wickets he scalped in the first T20I in Durban, Chakaravarthy said: "It is a combination of both my consistency and overspin.

"The overspin I bowl has more bite from the pitch and hopefully I can keep doing that and hopefully I can keep contributing for the country."

Chakaravarthy was axed from the Indian team after going wicketless during the 2021 World Cup but he earned his place back after his exploits in the last two editions of the IPL. He snapped 20 wickets in IPL 2023 before finishing as the second highest wicket-taker this year.

"Definitely, the last three years were a little tough," Chakaravarthy told media after the match.

"The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. And I started playing a lot of the domestic league (TNPL) in India. And that definitely helped me understand my game better. And that’s what helped me."

Chakaravarthy was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL-winning team this year under Gambhir, who recently took over as the coach of the Indian team and he credited the role clarity provided by the coach for helping him to regain his lost form.

"Yes, we played the Bangladesh tour and he was coaching the team. And definitely we spoke a lot and he gave me a lot of role clarity.

"He told me, even if you go for 30-40 runs, it doesn’t matter. All you have to look is to pick wickets. So that’s your role in the team. The clarity which they gave definitely helped me."

Chakaravarthy’s match-changing spell reduced South Africa to 66 for 6 while chasing a modest target of 125, but a gritty partnership between Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) saw the hosts home in 19 overs, ending India’s 11-match winning streak.

"During the innings break, Surya (skipper Suryakumar Yadav) came and told us that let’s not think about the result and let’s just go all out. And that’s what we tried to do. We did our best and we could have pulled it off.

"Obviously, the mindset has to be aggressive when the score is low. You have to pick wickets and that’s when we can win the match. That has to be my approach in the next two games also because it’s going to be a do-or-die match for us," he said.

The spinner added that performing against a formidable team like South Africa would serve as a confidence booster heading into the remaining matches.

"Definitely, when we came to South Africa, we knew that it’s going to be a challenging tour because the Proteas, they are one of the best teams right now and they have a powerful batting lineup.

"Doing well against them definitely gives me motivation to do more better and definitely I can. Hopefully I can do well in the upcoming games."

India will face South Africa in the third and final T20Is on Wednesday and Friday at Centurion and Johannesburg, respectively.