Nitish Kumar Reddy
Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube went for 51 runs in the three overs they bowled. NEW DELHI: There’s growing concern in Indian cricket over the paucity of seam-bowling allrounders. The team management and the selectors are forever in the hunt to find a backup for the injury-prone Hardik Pandya . More than the runs conceded, the fact that they came on to bowl only after the four frontline bowlers had broken the back of the Afghan batting is what will be more disconcerting for the team management. Captain Shreyas Iyer did go to Reddy first to bowl the quota of the fifth bowler, but couldn’t throw the ball back to him after two overs. It’s understandable that Reddy is also coming back from a three-month injury layoff while Dube has been bowling very little over the last two-three years. But it’s an area that the Indian team management is eager to cover when the prep for the ODI World Cup begins after the Asian Games . There’s no clarity on when Hardik will be declared fit for an international match. Thus, the next two matches here at the Kotla become extremely crucial for both Reddy and Dube. His participation in the upcoming Asian Games will be decided after the BCCI ‘s medical team assesses the injury. Chakravarthy’s injury is another jolt to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) under cricket head VVS Laxman.
Even India’s dominant win over Afghanistan in the first T20I here on Sunday night couldn’t mask the big crack in their armour. Effectively, the next T20Is against Afghanistan on Tuesday and Thursday before the Asian Games will be an audition for Reddy.