Leg and Off: Should India play Varun Chakravarthy in their playing 11 for 1st IND vs ENG ODI 2025?

A major enhancement to India's squad for the ODI series against England was the inclusion of spinner Varun Chakravarthy. The leg-spinner showcased excellent performance in the recent T20I series, where India triumphed over England 4-1, taking 14 wickets in five matches.

There have been calls for including Chakravarthy in India's squad for the upcoming 2025 ICC Champions Trophy (CT), which will be held in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates later this month. However, India already have four spinners in their ranks - Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar - for the tournament.

While it is unlikely that Chakravarthy will make the Champions Trophy squad, he can feature against England in the upcoming three-match ODI series. The likes of Harry Brook and Jos Buttler struggled mightily against Chakravarthy in the T20I series. The duo were dismissed by Chakravarthy in three out of the five matches and will not be keen to see him in India's lineup.

The pitch in Nagpur aids spinners as well, and with the Tamil Nadu spinner adept at bowling with the new ball and old, he can be a game-changer for the Men in Blue. He showed how lethal he can be with the 21 wickets he picked up for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2024 IPL.

But even then, it is highly unlikely that he gets a go in the playing XI as the Indian management will want to get the spinners selected for the CT to get up to speed. But if the think tank decides otherwise, they'll have a tough decision to make.

Who will India drop to accommodate Varun Chakravarthy in the playing XI?

Varun Chakravarthy of India bowls during the T20 International match between India and England at MA Chidambaram Stadium on January 25, 2025, in Chennai, India. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

If India are to play Chakravarthy, they will have to drop a frontline spinner, which could end up being Kuldeep Yadav, who has just gained fitness after a sports hernia surgery in October 2024.

As far as the team composition is concerned, Hardik Pandya and either Ravindra Jadeja or Axar Patel are likely to make it to the XI as the senior all-rounders, leaving Harshit Rana (first two games), Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami in the pacers department. With only one slot for a specialist spinner available, Chakravarthy will take Yadav's spot if it comes to that.

It will be hard for the management to take a definitive call between Yadav and Chakravarthy given that the two offer completely different skills. At the same time, if India play Patel as their frontline spinner instead of Yadav, Chakravarthy will lose the race owing to his lack of batting potential.

If Washington Sundar is considered as an option to play in the XI, his batting abilities will again come to the fore, leaving Chakravarthy out. Hence, logically, the latter can only replace Kuldeep Yadav in the XI.

For the sake of argument, both Chakravarthy and Yadav can be accommodated in the XI, but at the cost of weakening the batting, a risk that the Indians would not want to take. This possibility can be considered later if India manage to take an unassailable lead in the series.

But in a direct race between Yadav and Chakravarthy, the former wins comfortably. The Uttar Pradesh tweaker took four wickets in his last three ODIs (against Sri Lanka in 2024) and comes into this game on the back of a three-wicket haul against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy.

His 172 ODI wickets at an average of 26 have rightfully earned him a spot in the team, and Chakravarthy should be considered only as his alternative in a scenario where the former has not performed well or is not match fit.