Rahul Chahar Likely Addition to India Squad for Eng T20s: Report

Rahul Chahar debuted in T20Is in 2019 but hasn’t played again since that match against West Indies.

With the T20I series against England round the corner, there could be some further changes to the Indian squad at Ahmedabad.

Mumbai Indians’ spinner Rahul Chahar could be added to squad as there are doubts about the fitness for Rahul Tewatia and Varun Chakravarthy, Cricbuzz reported. Both failed the first round of fitness Tests at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore last month, while the results for the second aren’t known as yet.

Chahar, one of the standby players during the recently concluded Test series, has been with the Indian team in the bubble and would be the automatic choice. He was also part of the Indian contingent that had a practice session on Monday (March 8) evening.

Others players who were on standby during the Test series, like K S Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Priyank Panchal, had been released to join their state sides for the Vijay Hazare Trophy but Chahar had stayed back with the team.

Chahar, 21, had a reasonably successful IPL 2020 for Mumbai Indians. He made his T20I debut for India in 2019 but has not played again since that match against West Indies in the Caribbean.

While Tewatia is reportedly in quarantine and has trained with the squad, Chakravarthy, however, was not part of the training as reported by Cricbuzz and has been asked to check into the NCA to work on his fitness targets.

The BCCI have also asked the selectors to identify potential India prospects and send them for a fitness test in advance, Cricbuzz’s report added. The move comes after Chakravarthy and Tewatia, who were named in the T20I squad against England, failed their fitness tests.