Varun Chakravarthy took 1 for 16 on his comeback, and an MRI has ended his series
The spinner played his first match for India in two months on Sunday in Delhi. A side strain has ruled him out of the rest of the Afghanistan T20Is.
Sep 15, 2026
Varun Chakravarthy waited two months for his four overs. He got them on Sunday, and now he is out again.
The spinner will miss the rest of India’s three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Delhi after feeling discomfort in his side during the opener at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. A scan the next day confirmed the problem. “It is a fresh injury. MRI has revealed that it is a side strain. He is out of the series,” a BCCI source told Indian media on Monday.
The timing is cruel in a way only injuries manage. Chakravarthy had not played for India since the start of July. He came back on Sunday, bowled his full quota, conceded 16 runs and dismissed Darwish Rasooli as India won by seven wickets. On the evidence of that spell there was nothing wrong with him at all.
The injury he had just recovered from
This is the second muscle problem to interrupt his year. Chakravarthy tore his hamstring during the third T20I against England at the beginning of July, a Grade 2 strain that sent him home from the tour and into rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. He spent the rest of the English summer there while India moved on without him.
His only competitive cricket before the Afghanistan series came in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, where he played a single match for Dindigul Dragons in August and went wicketless. One TNPL outing and one international is a thin run of bowling for a man who was carrying a torn hamstring six weeks earlier, and the side strain reads like the body’s reply to that.
India have not picked a replacement
No official replacement has been named, and India may decide they do not need one. Ravi Bishnoi is already in the squad and knows the job: he covered for Chakravarthy on the Zimbabwe tour in July, played all three T20Is and took three wickets at an economy rate of 5.66. Washington Sundar is the other spin option, and he brings batting depth, though he is also freshly back from a leg injury picked up in England.
Axar Patel took 1 for 27 on Sunday and is not going anywhere. India’s spin stocks are deep enough that Shreyas Iyer can lose his most distinctive bowler and still field a balanced attack on a Delhi surface. Whether they want to is another matter, because nobody else in the squad does what Chakravarthy does to a right-hander who has never faced him.
What it means for the Asian Games
The more important question is not the second T20I on Tuesday or the third on Thursday. It is the tournament after that. India’s men begin their Asian Games campaign in Japan on 28 September, with a one-off T20I against Japan on 22 September on the way there, and Chakravarthy is in the squad for both.
The understanding is that the setback is temporary and that he will travel. A side strain is not a hamstring tear and does not carry the same rehabilitation clock, so nine days of rest before the Japan fixture is a realistic window rather than an optimistic one. India have not confirmed anything, which is the sensible position with a bowler who has now broken down twice in ten weeks.
Chakravarthy turned 35 in August. He has now broken down twice since the start of July, in a stretch that has brought him one international and one TNPL game. India will settle for getting him on a plane to Japan.