India speedster T Natarajan wouldn’t be featured in the upcoming T20I series against England.
T Natarajan, who had tasted a fair share of success in the series Down Under against the Aussies, is in doubt for the upcoming T20I series against England owing to a shoulder injury. While speaking to ANI, sources in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) have confirmed this. However, they did not completely rule him out, but it is likely to be a race against time for him to be a fit again to take the field.
“He is down with a knee and shoulder injury and is in doubt for the T20I series. Will have to take it one day at a time and it is a race against time,” the source revealed.
On the other hand, spinner Varun Chakravarthy has once again failed to clear the mandatory fitness test and he is likely to be replaced by Rahul Chahar in the squad. Chahar, however, has already been in the side as reserve players for the Test series and with Chakravarthy’s absence, he would be a like-for-like replacement as well. He has so far played a T20I for India against the West Indies.
The absence of T Natarajan is a huge blow for India
As far as T Natarajan is concerned, his absence would be a huge blow for the host. However, there’s always some positive in everything. All-rounder Hardik Pandya has shared a video on Twitter on Tuesday where he can be seen fine-tuning his bowling skills as well.
While Pandya used to bowl earlier, he has bowled once post his back injury. He did bowl in the second ODI against Australia in Sydney in November but he felt slight discomfort too. Moreover, he has been playing as a finisher in recent times. The doubt remain the same if he could manage to bowl consistently any time soon.
India’s T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (Vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
