A BCCI official has said that with ace India allrounder Hardik Pandya not on the periphery of playing Tests and Shivam Dube's bowling not being 'upto the mark', the selection committee made a desperate call to take pace-bowling allrounder Nitish Reddy to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The youngster earned his first Test call-up on Friday when the squad was announced.
India will look to defend the Border-Gavaskar trophy during the rubber that starts on November 22 at Perth. Nitish and Harshit Rana were two rookies named in the squad, with the latter not being capped yet.
With Mohammed Shami not being part of the squad due to his ongoing recovery from ankle surgery earlier this year, India have probably added these two youngsters as backups for the long series.
🚨 NEWS 🚨Squads for India’s tour of South Africa & Border-Gavaskar Trophy announced 🔽#TeamIndia | #SAvIND | #AUSvINDpic.twitter.com/Z4eTXlH3u0
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 25, 2024
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“Hardik Pandya has stopped playing red-ball cricket and Shivam Dube's (he is injured) bowling isn't up to the mark," a BCCI official told PTI.
“Nitish is a work in progress but if India are to bring in balance, they need their fourth seamer to be an all-rounder. Hence Nitish is a desperate choice going by his IPL and Bangladesh series performance," the source added.
Nitish has one hundred and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 First-Class matches and he was more of a forced choice as there are no pace-bowling all-rounders at India's disposal at the moment.
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Nitish Reddy's Performance In IPL and Bangladesh Series
In 13 matches in IPL 2024, Reddy scored 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92. He picked just three wickets and was pretty expensive with the ball. Against Bangladesh, he scored 90 runs in three T20Is, at a strike rate of 180. He also picked three wickets at an impressive economy of 7.88.
In 21 first-class matches, Nitish has scored 708 runs with one hundred and two fifties to his name. He has also picked 55 wickets, at an economy of 3.31.