T20 World Cup: Injury-prone Varun Chakravarthy out with left-calf muscle injury against Afghanistan

“Varun
Chakravarthy
has
a
left
calf
issue.
He
was
not
available
for
selection
for
this
game,”
a
BCCI
media
statement
said.

T20
World
Cup:
India
vs
Afghanistan,
Toss
Updates:
Kohli
loses
third
consecutive
toss
as
Nabi
opts
to
chase

Chakravarthy
failed
to
get
a
single
wicket
in
the
two
games
that
he
played
and
had
the
injury
not
cropped
up,
he
was
supposed
to
be
benched
as
neither
Pakistan
nor
New
Zealand
did
have
any
problem
in
facing
him.
The
right-arm
spinner
from
Tamil
Nadu
was
preferred
over
the
likes
of
Ravichandran
Ashwin
and
Rahul
Chahar
in
the
first
two
games.

Ravichandran
Ashwin,
who
last
played
an
international
game
in
June
in
the
World
Test
Championship,
finally
got
a
game
after
nearly
four
and
half
months.
In
fact,
Ashwin
is
playing
a
white-ball
game
after
four
years,
having
last
donned
the
blue
jersey
in
the
West
Indies
back
in
2017.

T20
World
Cup
2021:
Sarandeep
Singh
highlights
selection
howlers
in
India
squad

Middle-order
batsman
Suryakumar
Yadav,
having
recovered
from
the
back
spasm
and
replaced
wicketkeeper-batsman
Ishan
Kishan
from
the
playing
eleven.

Meanwhile,
India
captain
Virat
Kohli
lost
his
third
consecutive
toss
as
Nabi
elected
to
field
first
in
a
crunch
game
for
the
underfire
Indians.
Team
India
have
lost
two
games
on
the
bounce
in
the
ongoing
multi-nation
tournament.

After
losing
the
toss
Kohli
said,
“Firstly
there’s
no
denying
the
fact
that
the
situation
is
a
tricky
one.
Having
said
that
there’s
still
a
chance.
We
as
a
team
will
look
at
the
chance
and
try
to
play
positive
cricket.
We
know
we
haven’t
played
up
to
potential
whatever
the
reasons
might
be
–
need
to
brush
that
aside.
Would
have
bowled
first.
But
it’s
not
a
bad
thing
against
a
side
like
Afghanistan
who
look
to
put
up
runs
on
the
board.
A
couple
of
changes
–
Surya
is
back
as
he’s
fit.
Ashwin
replaces
Varun
who
has
a
bit
of
a
niggle.”

Playing
XIs:

India:
KL
Rahul,
Rohit
Sharma,
Virat
Kohli
(c),
Suryakumar
Yadav,
Rishabh
Pant
(w),
Hardik
Pandya,
Ravindra
Jadeja,
Ravichandran
Ashwin,
Shardul
Thakur,
Mohammed
Shami,
Jasprit
Bumrah.

Afghanistan:
Hazratullah
Zazai,
Mohammad
Shahzad
(w),
Rahmanullah
Gurbaz,
Najibullah
Zadran,
Mohammad
Nabi
(c),
Gulbadin
Naib,
Sharafuddin
Ashraf,
Rashid
Khan,
Karim
Janat,
Naveen-ul-Haq,
Hamid
Hassan.