Spinner Varun Chakravarthy was spotted training with India’s ODI squad in Nagpur ahead of the three-match series against England.
With speculation raised on Varun Chakravarthy added to India’s Champions Trophy, the off-spinner training with the rest of the ODI squad has brought in more expectations on the player added to the ICC event.
The training session took place in the afternoon at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
The Indian team including senior players like Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma arrived in Nagpur on Monday. Varun Chakravarthy was not seen with the rest of the squad in visuals from the Nagpur airport on Monday.
Varun was seen wearing India’s training kit and bowling to an Indian batter during the practice session as captured in photos shared by sports journalist Sandipan Banerjee.
India have picked four spinners in the squad for ICC event and it remains to be seen how Varun will be accommodated.
Varun had a sensation run in the recently concluded T20I series, which India won 4-1. The spinner won the Player of the Series award for taking 14 wickets, including a five wicket haul.
Varun’s inclusion in the training session comes a day after former India spinner Ashwin hinted at the possibility of the KKR spinner featuring in India’s Champions Trophy squad.
“I have a feeling that Varun might get a chance to play in the ODi series between India and England. I don’t think it’s an easy call to take him directly to the Champions Trophy. He has not played ODIs.”
“I have a feeling they will give him a chance in the India vs England ODI series,”Ashwin said in his YouTube show.
“If they don’t give him a chance here, then it’s difficult. But, nevertheless, I congratulate Varun for his first player of the tournament award. He is the Chakravarthy of T20I cricket at the moment. I wish he grows more and more,” he added.
Varun has enjoyed backing from the team management, especially India head coach Gautam Gambhir. He returned to the T20I squad after a three year absence after Gambhir took over as head coach.
Varun Chakravarthy had an excellent run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Tamil Nadu picking 18 wickets in six matches. The first ODI match of the series will be played on February 06 at VCA Stadium.
India squad for England ODIs: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana (first two ODIs), Jasprit Bumrah (third ODI), Varun Chakravarthy
