Kolkata Knight Riders' star spinner Varun Charkravarthy expressed his frustration after being ignored for India's squad for the Zimbabwe tour on Monday, June 24. Varun posted two cryptic stories on his Instagram to slam the team selection after a stellar performance in the IPL 2024.
Varun bagged 21 wickets in just 14 innings in the IPL 2024 to emerge as the best spinners but was avoided for the T20 World Cup 2024 team. Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee named only two designated spinners Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi for the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe and once again snubbed Varun.
The 32-year-old leggie last played two T20Is for India in 2021 and has been a consistent performer in the IPL for the last couple of seasons. Varun said about not having a 'paid PR agency' in his first Instagram story, taking an indirect dig at the selection committee for selecting players based on popularity over performance.
Notably, Rinku Singh was the only KKR player to make the team despite their dominant performance throughout the IPL 2024. Captain Shreyas Iyer, emerging pacer Harshit Rana and top performer Venkatesh Iyer were the high-profile KKR players missing the India squad for the Zimbabwe tour.
Four players Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Nitish Reddy and Tushar Deshpande received their maiden national call-ups while the wicketkeeper batter Dhruv Jurel has been selected for the T20Is for the first time. Only Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson from the T20 World Cup squad kept their places in the team for the T20Is against Zimbabwe. Shubman Gill has been selected to lead the team for the five-match series starting on July 6 in Harare.
India squad for Zimbabwe T20Is - Ꮪhubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande.
