Varun Chakravarthy becomes second-oldest Indian to debut in ODI

Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy is making his ODI debut in the second ODI against England at Cuttack. At 33 years and 164 days, Chakravarthy becomes the second oldest Indian to debut in the format after Farokh Engineer (36y 138d) in 1974.

With just 11 days left for the Champion's Trophy, Chakravarthy's inclusion comes at a critical time. India only have one more match before the marquee event in Pakistan and UAE. As things stand, the mystery spinner is not part of the squad named for the tournament.

Before the series began, with Chakravarthy was added to the ODI squad at the last moment. Captain Rohit Sharma had spoken about the spinner brining something different to the table even as India had included four spinners for the Champions Trophy.



For his 59 wickets, the spinner has a List A average of 14.13 and an economy rate of 4.28 in 23 outings. He has the best average for any bowler in List A cricket with more than 50 wickets. He was also the leading wicket-taker among spinners in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, snapping up 18 wickets with a best of 5/9 and an average of 12.16.

Sharma had earlier hinted that Varun could well be in contention for the Champions Trophy with the teams still having time to confirm their final contingent.

“He has certainly shown something different. I understand that it is a T20 format but he has clearly got something different about him. So we just wanted to have an option and see what we can do with him,” Sharma had said in Nagpur.

“Clearly during the series it presents us an opportunity to play him at some stage and see what he is capable of. If things plan out really well for us and he does what is required then definitely there is something that we need to think about,” he added.


England won the toss and opted to bat first in the second ODI.

“We’ve made two changes. Yashasvi Jaiswal misses out as Virat Kohli comes back, and Kuldeep Yadav is rested with Varun getting his debut,” Sharma confirmed at the toss.