Varun Chakravarthy Ruled Out of Asian Games, Vipraj Nigam Named as Replacement

Asian Games: Indian leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the men's cricket team, which was supposed to compete in the Asian Games in Japan.

According to a report by Dainik Jagran, Vipraj Nigam, another leg-spinner, will be the like-for-like substitute for Chakravarthy at the Asian Games. Besides Nigam, left-arm leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav was also part of the Asian Games roster to be named as a replacement for Varun Chakaravarthy. However, Kuldeep was selected for the India vs West Indies series, which clashes with the timeline of the Asian Games.

The development comes after Varun complained of a side strain during India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I. Subsequently, he was flown to Bengaluru to meet the CoE medical team, where he is currently undergoing scans to determine the extent of the injury. Chakravarthy made his comeback in the first T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday and bowled his full quota of four overs. He picked up 1/16 as India won the series opener by seven wickets, but experienced discomfort in the third over of the spell.

"Varun is out for an indefinite period of time. Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav were the two available options from the long list. Kuldeep will play the West Indies ODIs later this month," an official from the BCCI quoted.

The spinner's latest setback comes after he had worked his way back from a Grade 2 hamstring injury suffered during India's tour of England in July. He subsequently underwent rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru before returning to competitive cricket in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.

Asian Games: India's Squad

India: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yash Thakur.