Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the T20I series against Australia owing to a shoulder injury. The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) selection committee named T Natarajan as his replacement.
Chakravarthy was added to the T20I squad by virtue of his impressive IPL 2020 season where he finished as the highest wicket-taker for Kolkata Knight Riders - 17 wickets in 13 games at 20.94.
Natarajan too impressed the selectors with his superb bowling during IPL 2020 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He picked 16 wickets in 16 matches 31.50. What has even been impressive about him is his ability to deliver yorkers at will. He bowled 64 yorkers in IPL 2020, 39 more than the bowler at second-place.
Meanwhile, Sanju Samson has been added as the second wicketkeeper for the ODI series against Australia.
The revised squads are as below:
Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan.
India's tour of Australia kicks off with the three-match ODI series from November 27, which will be followed by as many T20Is and four Tests, all ending on January 19.
