India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was released from the squad for the first Test against South Africa at Kolkata starting on Friday. The 22-year-old was, instead, included in the India A squad to take on South Africa A in the three-match ODI series, starting in Rajkot on Thursday. The series will take place between November 13-19, with Tilak Varma leading India A in the matches.
A BCCI press release said that Reddy would link up with the Test squad for the second Test at Guwahati, after the conclusion of the white-ball series.
“All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has been released from India’s squad for the first Test against South Africa. Nitish will join the India A squad for the One-day series against South Africa A in Rajkot.”
“The three One-days between India A and South Africa A will take place from 13th to 19th November at the Niranjan Shah Stadium. Reddy will return to the squad for the second Test post the conclusion of the ‘A’ series,” the release said.
The decision comes on the same day as assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate all but confirming that Dhruv Jurel would play the series opener as a pure batter with Rishabh Pant donning the gloves.
“I don’t think you can leave him out for this Test, is the short answer. But obviously, you can only pick 11 as well, so someone else will have to miss out. I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of the combination.”
“Given the way Dhruv’s gone in the last six months, scoring two hundreds in Bangalore last week, he’s certain to play this week. Again, like what I mentioned about Washy [Washington Sundar], Axar [Patel], Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja], for me, you’ve actually got three batters there. So it does give us a lot of flexibility. But I’d be very surprised if we don’t see Dhruv and Rishabh playing in this Test this week,” ten Doeschate said.
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The second Test match will take place at Guwahati from November 22-26. It will be the first Test at the venue that has hosted ODIs and T20Is in the past.
Updated squads: India: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK) (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep
India A: Tilak Varma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Vipraj Nigam, Manav Suthar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy.
