Varun Chakaravarthy has been added to the Indian cricket team squad for the ODI series against England, Shubman Gill has revealed. The mystery spinner was spotted training with India's ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series, starting Thursday in Nagpur. The 33-year-old tweaker could be in line for his maiden ODI call-up and debut, shortly before the Champions Trophy due to begin in Dubai in two weeks. On Tuesday, Chakaravarthy was seen bowling for over an hour against the Indian batters during the training session at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha. Varun Chakaravarthy was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the recent five-match T20I series that the hosts won over England by a 4-1 margin. The Tamil Nadu spinner bagged 14 wickets, including a five-for, the most by an Indian bowler in a bilateral T20I series. Despite playing only 23 List A 50-over games, Chakaravarthy has amassed 59 wickets at a 19.8 strike rate. Varun Chakaravarthy was also the leading wicket-taker among spinners in the recently concluded domestic 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, snapping 18 wickets with a best of 5/9 and 12.16 average. While India had originally named four other spinners in their provisional Champions Trophy squad, it will be interesting to see if Chakaravarthy will replace one of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar or Kuldeep Yadav in the final squad which can be announced by the February 12 deadline. Varun Chakaravarthy's statemate and former India off-spinner R Ashwin recently lauded his exploits and batted for his inclusion in India's squad for the ICC event in the UAE. "We are all talking about whether he should have been there (Champions Trophy squad). I think there is a chance he might be there. I have a feeling he might make it. There is a chance because all teams have named only a provisional squad. So he might get picked," R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. "But if you look at the existing squad, if a seamer goes out and Varun comes in, it will be an added spinner (five). I don't know who they would want to drop (if they think about getting Varun in). We will wait and see," Ashwin added. Ashwin said Varun Chakaravarthy could be seen in action during the forthcoming three-match ODI series against England, the squad for which is the same as the originally announced Champions Trophy team. "I have a feeling that Varun might get a chance to play in the ODI series between India and England. I don't think it's an easy call to take him directly to the Champions Trophy," said Ashwin. India’s updated squad for ODI series against England Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.
