Why is Varun Chakaravarthy not playing against Afghanistan in 2nd T20I?

Varun Chakaravarthy (BCCI Photo)

NEW DELHI: India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to field against Afghanistan in the second T20I at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. India won the opening T20I by seven wickets and currently lead the three-match series 1-0.India made one change to their playing XI, with Bishnoi replacing Chakaravarthy.

Speaking at the toss, Iyer said: "We are going to bowl first. You have a fair idea of how the wicket plays, and it gives the bowlers an idea, a little bit of an advantage. It wasn't comprehensive because we could have won by a huge margin. As a bowling unit, we could have picked wickets in the middle. Varun is injured and Ravi Bishnoi comes in."Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was not included, while Sanju Samson retained his place in the team.

Why is Varun Chakaravarthy not playing?

Chakaravarthy is not playing the second T20I after suffering a side strain during the opening match."Varun Chakaravarthy experienced sudden-onset discomfort in his left lateral abdominal region while bowling his third over in the first T20I. Scans have revealed a side strain, and he has subsequently been ruled out of the remaining two T20Is.

Bishnoi replaces injured Varun," BCCI said in its statement.

Afghanistan unchanged

Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran said his team would also have preferred to bowl first."We would have bowled first as well. We want to play positive cricket, we didn't get a good start that day, but we covered in the middle. We will try to do better tonight. We are playing the same XI."Afghanistan have made no changes to their playing XI.Playing XIsAfghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq FarooqiIndia: Sanju Samson (w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi