New Delhi: Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi has replaced the injured Varun Chakraborty in India’s squad for the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe later this month.
Bishnoi was not included in the original squad but has been included after Chakraborty was confirmed to need extra time to recover from a hamstring injury. The spinner missed the last two T20Is of India’s recent five-match series against England due to injury.
Bishnoi featured in the opening two matches of the England series. Although the first T20I was dropped without a ball in England’s innings, he endured a difficult outing in the second match at Old Trafford, conceding 60 runs in four overs.
He bowled three back-foot no-balls and was punished with two sixes and a boundary from the resulting free hits.
Chakraborty will now report to BCCI’s Center of Excellence (CoE) in Bangalore for further evaluation and rehabilitation. Fast bowler Harshit Rana is also expected to join him after another hamstring injury that has effectively ruled him out of the three-match ODI series against England.
The setback is particularly disappointing for Rana, who previously missed the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and IPL 2026 due to an injury to the same muscle. He only recently returned to action in the T20I series against Ireland before playing the first two matches against England.
Chakraborty has also endured a challenging run with injuries and form. During the England series he took only one wicket in two matches conceding runs at an economy rate of 10.28.
Earlier this year, he fractured his left toe in the latter stages of IPL 2026 and later missed the T20I series against Afghanistan and Ireland as he recovered.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Prince Yadav could be in the national squad for the ODI tour of England after initially being selected only for the T20 squad.
India’s pace attack for the ODI series is expected to receive a significant boost as the selectors aim to give Jasprit Bumrah regular 50-over cricket ahead of next year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Prashit Krishna, Kurnoor Brar and Arshdeep Singh are the other leading seamers in the ODI squad.
The Indian team for the Zimbabwe series is scheduled to arrive in Harare on July 20. Head of Special Training Center VVS Laxman will serve as head coach for the tour along with assistant coaches Sunil Joshi and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, allowing regular head coach Gautam Gambhir and his support staff to retire after the England ODI series.
Following India’s disappointing T20I series defeats against Ireland and England, the BCCI is expected to conduct a review involving Gambhir, senior board officials and T20I captain Shreyas Iyer.
India suffered a number of unwanted setbacks on both tours, including their first loss to Ireland, a six-match T20I loss and their first bilateral multi-match T20I series loss to England.
India squad for Zimbabwe T20 series
Shreyas Iyer (catch), Vaibhav Suriyavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma (VC), Ishan Kishan (week), Shivam Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Ringu Singh, Harsh Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav and Prabs Singh.