The young Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakravarthy has earned a maiden national call for the T20 series against Australia starting later this month. However, his participation is in jeopardy after suffering a shoulder injury in IPL 2020.
The architect-turned-cricketer had a breakthrough season in the UAE leading KKR’s spin unit. His outstanding show with the ball forced the skipper to keep India international Kuldeep Yadav sit on the bench. Varun has accumulated 17 wickets from 10 games at an economy rate of 6.84.
On the back of a brilliant outing, the selectors wanted to unleash the ‘unknown’ Varun Chakravarthy against the Aussies. However, a report in The Indian Express suggests that Chakravarthy is suffering from a labrum tear in his shoulder which does not affect his bowling but can be a problem when it comes to throwing the ball. The report further claims that he has had the tear for a while now and it aggravated during the course of IPL 2020.
Varun Chakravarthy likely to miss Australia tour
Incidentally, due to this injury, Varun mostly fielded inside the 30-yard circle during Kolkata’s games. The selectors were not informed about this injury as the spinner was declared fit in the report submitted by Team India physio Nitin Patel.
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However, KKR team management informed Patel about Chakravarthy’s injury only after KKR’s IPL campaign came to an end. But by then, the squad for the Australia tour was announced. It will now solely depend on BCCI whether Varun Chakravarthy will travel with the squad or not. The spinner has already joined the Indian squad bubble in Dubai.
“The selectors weren’t informed about the injury. Now it’s up to the selectors to pick Varun for the Australian tour or not. It will be selectors call,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Team India have already been hit with injury blows. After uncertainty over Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma’s participation, senior wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha has also suffered a groin injury and is doubtful for the tour.
