Hyderabad: Rising sensations Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy have earned their maiden call-up in the 18-member Indian team for the highly anticipated five-Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting from November 22, 2024, in Perth.
India, who haven't lost a Test series to Australia in the last decade at both, home and away games, will look to defend the illusive trophy. However, pacer Mohammed Shami, who has not played a competitive cricket since the conclusion of the 2023 ODI World Cup held in India, failed to make it into the squad while chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been advised long-term rehabilitation for his groin injury.
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— BCCI (@BCCI) October 25, 2024
Squads for India’s tour of South Africa & Border-Gavaskar Trophy announced 🔽#TeamIndia | #SAvIND | #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Z4eTXlH3u0
Axar Patel is another notable player to miss out on representing India down under while off-spinner Washington Sundar, who claimed 11 wickets so far in the ongoing Test in Pune, secured his place, courtesy to his previous performance in Gabba where he played a crucial 50+ run knock down the order.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been constantly knocking the selection panel's door with his sheer consistency, has finally made into the squad as reserve opener. He made his mark with four back-to-back hundreds in Duleep, Irani and Ranji Trophy matches. The cover is because of the possibility of Rohit skipping one of the earlier Test matches due to personal reasons.
KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan make up for the middle-order with Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel being the two wicket-keepers. Prasidh Krishna, the lanky pacer who made his debut in South Africa last year, is back in the squad after a long injury lay-off.
However, the story of this Indian team selection is Harshit, who is only nine First-Class matches old and has taken 36 wickets. But with a stellar IPL season under Gautam Gambhir at KKR, Rana has come quickly into the national reckoning and has been part of the squads in all formats, although he is yet to make his debut. He bowls consistently in the 140-click range and has a good short ball apart from being able to nail his yorkers perfectly.
“Harshit Rana has been completely Gautam Gambhir's choice. He has been pushing his case for the longest time since the start of the Sri Lanka tour. He was also kept as a reserve bowler. Since he is younger and quicker than both Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar, he has pipped them to the final squad,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
As far as Nitish Reddy is concerned, he has one century and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 First-Class games and he was more of a forced choice as the seam bowling all-rounder cupboard is bare.
“Hardik Pandya has stopped playing red-ball cricket and Shivam Dube's (he is injured) bowling isn't up to the mark. 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 said.
Mayank Yadav injured again. India's fastest bowler Mayank Yadav is injured again after an impressive international debut against Bangladesh as he missed out on a tour of South Africa for the four T20Is. KKR batting all-rounder Ramandeep Singh and Karnataka speedster Vyshak Vijaykumar are the new entrants in the T20I set-up. Dube (back injury) and Riyan Parag (shoulder injury) are back at the Center of Excellence for extensive rehabilitation.
India's squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.
India's squad for 4 T20Is against South Africa: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi. , Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
