Spinner Varun Chakaravarthy was seen with the Indian ODI squad in Nagpur ahead of the three-match series against England. The first ODI between the two sides will be played in Nagpur on February 6. The remainder of the two ODIs will be played on Feb 9 and 12 in Cuttack and Ahmedabad respectively.
Rohit Sharma and his team have arrived for a short camp before the series begins, and Varun, who has had a lot of success in T20Is against the same opponent, is an interesting addition.
The spinner took 14 wickets in five T20Is against England, dominating the opposition in all of them. He even took five wickets in the third Twenty20 International against England in Rajkot.
There has been no formal announcement on his attending the camp in Nagpur, and it is unclear whether he would only play nets or ODIs.
Varun Chakaravarthy is yet to play an ODI for India but has played 23 List A games for his state Tamil Nadu in the domestic circuit. His last appearance was during the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this year and he bagged a fifer vs Rajasthan in the preliminary quarter-final clash in Vadodara.
Earlier, R Ashwin had advocated for Varun's addition to India's Champions Trophy squad.
“We are all talking about whether he should have been there (Champions Trophy squad), I am thinking 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.
Ashwin believed Varun may be added to India's team for the ODIs against England, and this may now be the case.
"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. He has not played ODIs. I have a feeling they will give him a chance in the India vs England ODI series," Ashwin added.
India squad for England ODIs:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (WK), KL Rahul (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami