India spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the remainder of the T20I series against Afghanistan after he felt discomfort in his side. This setback comes barely days after the spinner made a return to international cricket after more than two months following a hamstring injury.
India spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the remainder of the T20I series against Afghanistan after he felt discomfort in his side. This setback comes barely days after the spinner made a return to international cricket after more than two months following a hamstring injury.
The spinner had been sidelined after sustaining a Grade 2 hamstring injury on the final ball of India’s third T20I against England in early July. He came back to India after the injury and had rehab at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Chakravarthy trained his skills with a few matches during the Tamil Nadu Premier League along with joining the national squad before the Afghanistan series. In August, he made his Dindigul Dragons debut, however failing to take a wicket while conceding 34 runs.
India, meanwhile, have not named a replacement for Chakravarthy as yet. The team already has two spin options in the squad who are no strangers to taking his spot in the playing XI: Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar.
Bishnoi has had a recent match against Chakravarthy. In July, he was drafted into India’s squad as a replacement for Chakravarthy ahead of the Zimbabwe tour and played all three T20Is. The leg spinner took three wickets at 5.66 in that series.
One more name is also being taken on bench — Washington Sundar, and this will make sense since his batting would give more depth to India as well. But like Anderson, he only recently returned from a leg injury suffered on the England tour. India have Axar Patel also as a spin option and he has bagged a wicket in the first ODI.
India will take on Afghanistan in the second T20I and the final match on September 15 and September 17 respectively. With the Afghanistan series over, India are due to play Japan in their first-ever T20I just ahead of the Asian Games campaign with the match lasting one day on September 22.
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