After stellar T20I show, Chakravarthy bowls during Indian ODI team's net session

Team India spinner Varun Chakravarthy has linked up with the ODI squad after showcasing his skills with the ball in the concluded T20I series against EnglandIn the T20I series Varun Chakravarthy snapped 14 wickets and was honoured with the Player of the Series award for his heroics The spinner was not picked for the ODIs against England and the Champions Trophy 2025Varun Chakravarthy was seen training and bowling in the Indian netsYes Varun Chakravarthy is part of the squad India vicecaptain Shubman Gill said in a media interaction after the teams trainingIt is understood that head coach Gautam Gambhir wants the mystery spinner to maintain his form and bowl the likes of Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma and Rishabh PantWith the deadline for squad changes for the Champions Trophy 2025 set for February 12 he remains a strong contender for selection However it is unlikely that he will be added to the CT squad without playing a single ODIAlso ReadChampions Trophy 2025 India or Pakistan see what Basit Ali saysIndia has got three finger spinners two leftarmers Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel and one rightarm offspinner in Washington Sundar Kuldeep Yadav who is returning to the Indian team after undergoing a sports hernia surgery in October 2024 is the lone wrist spinner in the squadAs of now the team management wanted Varun to bowl in ODI squad nets ahead of England series Varun doesnt play redball cricket a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymityWith domestic white ball season already concluded he doesnt have any assignments till start of IPL end March He is in good rhythm and they want him to continue that he addedWhen asked if there is a possibility of him being selected for the ODI series and subsequent Champions Trophy based on current form the source replied The selectors have already picked four spinners and you only have three ODI gamesBut if team management wants Varun it will certainly have to speak to the chairman of selection committee Whether they intend to or not is still not knownVarun Chakravarthys form could certainly work in his favour When he last played on the flatter tracks in Dubai during the 2021 T20 World Cup Chakravarthy struggled to make an impactHowever he has significantly improved since then focusing more on overspin to refine his variationsThe English team has not read him well and in the Champions Trophy one of the opposition is Bangladesh which was bamboozled by him in October during the T20I series He could also be an unknown entity for most of the New Zealand and Pakistan teamsAdditionally he has performed consistently on battingfriendly surfaces in the recent T20I series against England finishing as the leading wickettaker at an impressive average of 985 India are set to play all their league matches in DubaiChakravarthy picked up 18 wickets for Tamil Nadu in the National OneDay ChampionshipWith PTI Inputs