India replaced Yashasvi Jaiswal with Varun Chakravarthy in their squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy, raising a few eyebrows.
When Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out, replacing him with another fast bowler was a no-brainer. India drafted in Harshit Rana. Whether they could have backed Mohammed Siraj ahead of him is debatable, but what raised more eyebrows was the other change: they replaced Jaiswal, an opener who seldom bowls, with Varun, a rank tail-ender but a top-quality T20 spinner at all levels.
So why did India make this replacement. as far away from like-to-like as imaginable?
Explaining the change
Bumrah’s loss might not have hurt India as much had they had Mohammed Shami at his best. Unfortunately, while he has returned to the fold, there has been little evidence of him being back to his prime.
The two T20Is against England have fetched him figures of 5.3-0-50-3. The two ODIs, 15.1-1-104-2. It is probably unfair to expect him to unleash the beast mode from the 2023 World Cup right away. At the same time, these numbers do not indicate anything special. There were moments of incisiveness, but nothing befitting of a fast bowler of his stature.
It is evident that India expect spin to play a greater role than seam in Dubai, the only venue where they will play their Champions Trophy games. They have also as good as established that they would play all three all-rounders – Hardik Pandya and the left-arm finger-spin pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
That helps them bring down the tail to three batters – one fewer than they had once Pandya was ruled out halfway through the 2023 World Cup. While the cushion solves a batting problem, it opens up another, in the bowling department.
Who will take the wickets?
While a fine fast bowler and a power hitter of some repute, Pandya has only bowled 547.1 overs in 88 ODIs – about six overs a game. Axar (476.3 in 62) bowls about seven and a half. Pandya averages 35.88 and Axar 33.13. Ravindra Jadeja (1,644 in 199) bowls more than eight a game, but he averages 35.38 as well.
What does this mean? While India have three all-rounders on paper, they bowl a shade more than 20 overs a game. They are also defensive bowlers by nature.
There is nothing wrong in that per se... as long as Bumrah is in the XI and Shami is breathing fire. Unfortunately, with neither in the side (and both Arshdeep Singh and Harshit relatively new to the format), India lack a seasoned strike bowler. Despite his inconsistency, Siraj could have been an option, but the team management does not seem too keen on him.
Kuldeep Yadav fits the bill, but India need another option they can trust to break through in the middle overs. Varun has played only one ODI, but he has had an exceptional run in T20Is of late, with 31 wickets at 11.25 in 12 games this season. Of course, bowlers need to earn wickets more in ODIs than in T20Is, where defensive bowling can result in wickets, but he is a good option to have.
Will India ever play Varun if Kuldeep is fit?
Unlikely, perhaps, unless they go in with four spinners. In that case, they will have to use either Pandya or a spinner at the powerplay and at the death. If they open with Shami and Pandya, they are likely to be without a seamer in the middle overs. Perhaps there is something in the Dubai surface that has encouraged them to go that way.
Will India miss Jaiswal?
Unlikely. It takes less than four hours to fly from Mumbai to Dubai. And if an opener is indisposed on the morning of the game, India can simply draft in Rishabh Pant and make KL Rahul open instead a'la the 2019 World Cup.
