In the second match of the series against England at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, India made two important changes to their team. Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy received his first ODI cap from star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer held onto his spot despite the return of famous player Virat Kohli.
Kuldeep Yadav, who just came back to play cricket after surgery, was rested for this game, giving Chakravarthy a chance to shine. The Tamil Nadu spinner wowed the selectors with his excellent performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the recent T20 series against England, where he took 14 wickets in five games and won the Player of the Series award.
With the Champions Trophy just around the corner, Chakravarthy’s selection puts him in a good position for a spot on that team. However, Indian captain Rohit Sharma mentioned that it’s now up to the 33-year-old spinner to prove himself.
Chakravarthy made history by becoming the second oldest Indian to play his first ODI at 33 years and 164 days, following Farookh Engineer, who did so at 36 years and 138 days in 1974.
As for Virat Kohli, he was back after a knee injury and replaced Shubman Gill at the one down position, while Rohit Sharma opened the batting with Iyer following him.
Teams:
– England: Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(c), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Saqib Mahmood.
– India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy.
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