Reports | Varun Chakravarthy may miss the England T20Is due to fitness concerns 

Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakravarthy might have to further wait for his international debut as he reportedly failed the new fitness benchmark set by the BCCI, as per Cricbuzz reports. As per the new fitness standards, one has to either score 17.1 in the Yo-Yo test or finish a 2 km run in 8.5 minutes or less, to be eligible for selection in the Indian team. If the KKR spinner misses out on the upcoming T20I series, it will be the second time that fitness will come in his way to play for India at the top-level. 

The 29-year-old had performed exceedingly well for the KKR in the 2020 IPL, emerging as the best spinner, easily piping the likes of Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav respectively. It paved way for his selection in the Indian team for the tour of Australia as well. However, a shoulder injury that he had picked in the IPL, ruled him out of the tour. As a result, he had to undergo rehab at the NCA. Now, his shoulder is fine but running is creating an issue for him. 

When asked whether he has been informed about anything from the board or not as of yet, he answered Cricbuzz, "I have not been informed of anything as yet."

Notably, the spinner wasn't picked in the Tamil Nadu side for the ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy and currently, he's training with the Kolkata Knight Riders team in Mumbai. TN didn't pick him for the 50-overs competition as they consider him a T20 specialist, which comes as shocking, given that he wasn't part of their 20-over squad either. 

"He was never in contention for a one-day team berth because we consider him as a T20 specialist. It will be difficult to expect more than four-five overs from him because of the effort he puts on his fingers," said Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) secretary S Ramasamy.