Former Indian batter and presenter Wasim Jaffer has cautioned the underfire mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy ahead of the upcoming three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, starting on September 13 in Delhi.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Jaffer reckoned that the opposition batters have figured out how to play the star spinner. He added that batters don’t hesitate to play their shots against the Tamil Nadu spinner.
“Varun Chakravarthy should hopefully do well because, recently, there have been some difficulties for him. It seems that teams have figured him out a little. The batsmen have figured out how he bowls. Most of his deliveries come into the batsman, and the ball doesn’t go away. When the ball lands in the batsman’s hitting zone, they don’t hesitate to play their shots. They understand that Varun generally looks for the bat-pad gap. So, this will be a very important series for him,” Jaffer said on his YouTube channel.
Additionally, Jaffer advised the Indian team to beware of the strong Afghanistan set-up, led by Ibrahim Zadran, adding that they have enough strength to stun the Men in Blue in at least one fixture.
“Afghanistan are dangerous in this format. So, overall, I feel India should dominate, but don’t be surprised if Afghanistan beat India in one match and pose a challenge. I don’t think we should take them lightly. I feel this will be a slightly challenging series. India should win the series; otherwise, it would obviously be a very poor performance,” he added.
Afghanistan squad: Ibrahim Zadran (C), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Noor Rahman (WK), Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Abdullah Ahmadzai, Naveen-ul-Haq.
India squad: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Tilak Varma (VC), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
NOTE: * Subject to fitness clearance
