India vs Australia 2020: Varun Chakravarthy Ruled Out Of India T20I Squad Due To Injury, T Natarajan Named Replacement

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the revised Squad for the tour of Australia on Monday. The mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of India’s T20 International squad for the tour of Australia in November-December due to a shoulder injury. Left-arm fast bowler T. Natarajan has been named as his replacement.

Varun Chakravarthy had earned his maiden call-up on the back of some sensational performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. He played a major role for Kolkata Knight Riders. His selection was purely based on his exploits in the T20 league where he picked up 17 wickets from 13 matches for KKR with a best of 5 for 20. However, he has sustained a shoulder injury now and unfortunately will not travel to Australia.

“The spinner (Varun Chakravarthy) has been ruled out of the T20I series owing to a shoulder injury. The selectors have named T Natarajan as a replacement,” BCCI‘s statement read.

Talking about T Natarajan, IPL 2020 has been his year. First, he impressed all the cricketing fraternity with his exceptional performance and now he has been selected for the Australia tour. As long as his IPL 2020 career is concerned, SRH pacer has played 16 matches so far, and picked 6 wickets at an average of 31.5. He has bowled the most number of yorkers, around 65-70, in the IPL 2020 which is 2-3 times more than the second best.

Natarajan has played 38 T20s and took 35 wickets. He got recognition through his performances in the Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2017. Natarajan also has 64 first-class and 16 List A wickets.

Few more changes has been brought in the squad. Captain Virat Kohli has been granted paternity leave after the first Test in Adelaide and Rohit Sharma, who has fully recovered from a hamstring injury, has been included in the Test squad and has been rested from the ODI and T20I squads.

Team India will directly fly to Australia after the completions Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

The tour begins on November 27 with the first ODI in Sydney. Team India is scheduledd to play three ODIs, three T20Is and four Tests on the Australia tour.

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