It may have taken time, but not too long, and once again, we saw an example of this. After making England batters struggle in T20I cricket, Varun Chakaravarthy has now stepped into the ODI format as well. That’s correct; at the age of 33 years and 184 days, Chakaravarthy became India’s second-oldest ODI debutant after wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer, who made his debut at 36 years in 1974.
This is an incredible story, especially in Chakaravarthy’s case.
Not many people know that he had left cricket and started a corporate career as an architect. However, his passion for cricket remained, leading him to club cricket, then the Tamil Nadu Premier League, and eventually a life-changing moment when Punjab Kings bought him for INR 8.4 crore in the 2018 IPL auction. Since then, everything has gone right for this mystery spinner.
But did you know he is not the only one who made his ODI debut at such a late stage? There are quite a few players who had to wait for years before getting their India cap. Take a look at all the players who debuted late.
Oldest players to make international debut for India
| Rank | Player | Age | Opponent | Venue | Year |
| 1 | Farokh Engineer | 36y 138d | England | Leeds | 1974 |
| 2 | Varun Chakravarthy | 33y 164d | England | Cuttack | 2025 |
| 3 | Ajit Wadekar | 33y 103d | England | Leeds | 1974 |
| 4 | Dilip Doshi | 32y 350d | Australia | Melbourne | 1980 |
| 5 | Syed Abid Ali | 32y 307d | England | Leeds | 1974 |
All these names have clearly shown that age is not a barrier, proving everyone wrong. As mentioned, Farokh Engineer holds the record as the oldest player to make a debut. His elegant batting and acrobatic wicketkeeping grabbed much attention when he was playing. He made his debut in Leeds against England in 1974.
Now, it is Varun Chakravarthy who has made his ODI debut at 33 years and 164 days against England in Cuttack in 2025. Also in this list, former India Test captain Ajit Wadekar had a late start in ODIs, debuting at 33 years and 103 days, coincidentally against England in Leeds in 1974.
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