Gautam Gambhir ‘Promoting his case…’: Inside details on India’s surprise selection challenges against Australia

Delhi speedster Harshit Rana and Andhra bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have earned their maiden call-ups to the 18-man Indian squad under Rohit Sharma for the upcoming five-Test series against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Delhi shortstop Harshit played just nine first-class matches in which he took 36 wickets. But thanks to a stellar IPL 2024 season under Gautam Gambhir at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where he took 19 wickets, Rana quickly entered the national reckoning and was part of squads in all formats, even though he was yet to make his debut. A BCCI source revealed that Rana was exclusively Gambhir’s choice

“Harshit Rana was completely Gautam Gambhir’s choice. He has been making his case the longest since the start of the Sri Lanka tour,” a BCCI source told PTI on condition of anonymity.

He consistently bowls in the 140 click range and has a good short ball, apart from being able to bowl his yorkers perfectly.

“He was also kept as a backup bowler. As he is younger and faster than Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar, he has brought them into the final line-up,” the source added.

However, opener Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the squad while left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been recommended for long-term rehabilitation with a groin injury.

Axar Patel has been dropped from the squad selected for the New Zealand series in place of off-spinner Washington Sundar, who currently has 11 wickets in his basket in the ongoing Pune Test, who is preferred over the Gujarat left-armer.

Bengal’s Abhimanyu Iswaran came into the squad as a stand-in after back-to-back four hundreds in the Duleep, Irani and Ranji Trophy matches.

The cover-up is made due to Rohit’s possibility of missing one of the previous Test matches due to personal reasons.

KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan fill the middle order while Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel are the two wicketkeepers.

Prasidh Krishna, a long-bodied player who made his debut in South Africa last year, is back in the team after a long layoff due to injury.

As for Nitish Reddy, with one century and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 first-class games, he was more of a forced choice as the bowlers’ cupboard is empty.

“Hardik Pandya has stopped playing cricket and Shivam Dube (he is injured) is not bowling at the right level.

“Nitish is a work in progress, but if India wants to strike a balance, it needs a fourth seamstress to be versatile. So Nitish is a desperate choice given his performances in the IPL and the Bangladesh series,” the source said.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Washington gets ahead of Australia’s No. 2 No. 1 (Ravindra Jadeja’s No. 1) over Ravichandran Ashwin thanks to his excellent batting skills, which were already tested in Australia on the last tour.

Among the batsmen, Iswaran was rewarded with four hundreds on the trot, but he could also be a surefire player like Cheteshwar Pujara if needed during any part of the series.

Aksar had to miss out because he would have been one spinner too many with Jadeja already in the side.

Mayank Yadav injured again , India’s fastest bowler Mayank Yadav has been injured again after an impressive international debut against Bangladesh as he has missed the tour of South Africa for four T20Is.

KKR all-rounder Ramandeep Singh and Karnataka speedster Vishak Vijaykumar are the new entrants in the T20I pack.

Dube (back injury) and Riyan Parag (shoulder injury) have returned to the Center of Excellence for long-term rehabilitation.

India will look to defend the Border-Gavaskar trophy from November 22 in Perth.

The composition of the Indian team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashaswi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Iswaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R . Jadeja, Mohd. Seeraj, Akash Deep, Prasid Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khalil Ahmed.

India Squad for 4th T20I vs South Africa: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Thilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakraborty, Ravi Bishnoi. , Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vishak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from the syndicated feed.)