India vs England ODI series: ‘The English batters would be better against him (Varun Chakaravarthy) in the one-dayers,’ says Kevin Pietersen | Cricket News

Varun Chakravarthy in the recently concluded T20I series against England played a pivotal part in India’s win. He managed to pick up 14 wickets from five games including a five-wicket haul in Rajkot. The England batters struggled to pick his variations and were bamboozled time and again with his leg-break and willy googlies.
Chakravarthy’s performance in T20Is has earned him a call for the three-match ODI series. However, former English batter Kevin Pietersen believes Jos Buttler’s men will be better equipped to deal with Chakaravarthy in the 50-over version of the game. “The English batters would be better against him in the one-dayers because they can spend more time. It’s a longer format, not every ball is an event. But I think it is a great decision (to add Chakravarthy),” Pietersen said on the sidelines of the Dram Bell Scotch Whisky launch.
Unlike the T20I where the batters have to go after every delivery in ODIs batter’s primary target is to maneuver the ball through middle overs and wait for the bad delivery to be slipped in a bowler. Hence it requires a different skill set to pick wickets in in ODIs compared to T20s. However, Chakaravarthy in 23 l A (50-over format in domestic cricket) has picked up 59 wickets at an average of 14.13.
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Earlier Ravichandran Ashwin feels that India could make a change to their provisionally announced 15-member squad include Chakarvarthy before the February 12 deadline. India had initially named four spinners in the squad, namely Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.
“We are all talking about whether he should have been there (Champions Trophy squad). I am thinking there is a chance he might be there. I have a feeling he might make it. There is a chance because all teams have named only a provisional squad. So he might get picked,” R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“But if you look at the exing squad, if a seamer goes out and Varun comes in, it will be an added spinner (five). I don’t know who they would want to drop (if they think about getting Varun in). We will wait and see,” he added.