The Indian squad for the Tour of Australia was announced some days back. Mystery spinner Varun Chakrawarthy got his maiden call for the T20 squad after a dream season of the Indian Premiere League (IPL).
However some disheartening news coming in for the talented leg-spinner as he has been ruled out of the series after a shoulder injury.
The selection committee have decided to replace him with left-arm seamer T Natarajan, who was previously named only among the reserve group of net bowlers. The 29-year-old enjoyed a breakthrough campaign with Sunrisers Hyderabad, claiming 16 wickets from as many games at an economy of 8.02. Particularly noteworthy, however, was his propensity to deliver yorkers at will. He can be a great option as a death over specialist.
However, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who was also on the cards for the selection committee, will not fly to Australia as he is still working with BCCI’s medical team on his workload management.
The 20-year-old performer of India’s U-19 World Cup win of 2018 has been beset by a chronic back injury and only recently returned to active cricket and played 10 games for Kolkata Knight Riders.
However, this again questions the fact that what is the point of replacing Varun Chakravarthy, a spinner with fast-bowler Natarajan. Team Indian is now touring with 5 pace bowlers.
Here’s the full T20 squad:
T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (VC & WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan.
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