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Former Indian captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has backed Varun Chakravarthy’s inclusion in the Indian playing XI against arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy clash on Sunday, February 23 in Dubai.
Gavaskar felt that while pacers took wickets against Bangladesh, it was spinners who kept the run-scoring under control with tight lines and lengths. He has asserted that Varun’s inclusion as an extra spinner would benefit Team India.
“The pacers got wickets for both teams. Shami got 5 and Harshit Rana got 3. While the pacers got wickets, the spinners were the ones who kept control, the ones who bowled tightly. I would imagine that they will look to go in with Varun Chakravarthy as the extra spinner for the Pakistan game,” Gavaskar told Sports Today.
In the recently concluded T20I series against England, Varun Chakravarthy emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 13 wickets from five T20Is. Moreover, this performance propelled him to take a spot in the ODI squad against England in the three-match series.
Furthermore, he was fast-tracked to the ICC Champions Trophy squad, replacing Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in the final 15-man squad. If Varun Chakravarthy had to come to the XI vs Pakistan, Harshit Rana had to be benched with Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya sharing the new ball.
On his ODI debut in the second match vs England, he scalped one wicket, conceding 54 runs as India bagged a four-wicket win. He made his list-A debut for Tamil Nadu in 2018, scalping 60 wickets at an average of 14.8 and economy rate of 4.33.
India squad for Champions Trophy 2025:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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