New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- The injury-forced absence of Varun Chakravarthy, who was ruled out with a fresh side strain on Monday, and Hardik Pandya has deepened India's fifth-bowler conundrum in their push for a series victory over Afghanistan in the second T20I here on Tuesday.
The World Cup winners India returned to the shortest format with a dominant show, beating Afghanistan by seven wickets in a one-sided contest on Sunday here to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match rubber.
Shreyas Iyer's men ticked all the boxes as pacer Arshdeep Singh and opening batter Abhishek Sharma produced sensational performances to set up the win. While Arshdeep (3/19) was precise in his execution to help India restrict Afghanistan to 156 for eight, Abhishek came out all guns blazing with a 32-ball 82 to help complete the chase in 13.4 overs.
However, Chakravarthy, who picked up a wicket in the series opener after recovering from a hamstring injury that he had suffered during the tour to England
in July, was on Monday ruled out of the series due to a side strain, rendering him doubtful for the upcoming Asian Games as well. His absence leaves a major void in India's bowling unit, and Iyer needs to address it before India turn their attention to the Asian Games gold later this week.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.