The mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy has failed the fitness tests and now he has been ruled out while T Natarajan is racing against time to get fit for the series, making him doubtful for at least the early part of India’s five-match T20I series against England starting on Friday. Chakravarthy has been failing the fitness tests in recent times at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru while yorker specialist Natarajan is yet to join the squad due to an apparent “shoulder niggle”.
Describing the same one of senior officials of BCCI during a chat with PTI said, “Varun Chakravarthy was selected because he recovered from his shoulder injury that ruled him out of the Australia series. He did his rehab at the NCA and started throwing normally. However, he has failed to clear the YoYo test mark stipulated for a 2km run at least twice.”
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The question now being asked is why did the Chetan Sharma lead committee had decided to include such a player, who, after the month of October, hasn’t played even one competitive game for his state Tamil Nadu.
Describing the same, the BCCI official said, “We can understand he was doing his rehab during Mushtaq Ali (T20 Championship). But then again, he didn’t play a single Vijay Hazare Trophy game. How do you assess his match fitness based on games that he played five months back? I guess Varun Chakravarthy is a lesson for selectors. If a player is generally not maintaining the standards set by this Indian team, his bowling alone can’t be a criterion for selection.”
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Some of the recent reports have also suggested that Rahul Chahar has been called to be included in the squad as he is already in the bio-bubble since the start of the Test series. In the case of Natarajan, the NCA medical staff is trying to get him fit or at least the later part of the series. Rahul Tewatia is training with Team India in Ahmedabad as he awaits his second fitness Test results.
