As India were made to toil hard in the 2nd innings after imposing follow-on on West Indies, there were questions raised a few times on commentary, why was Nitish Kumar Reddy getting to bowl. India has bowled 118.5 overs on the back of 80.5 overs in the first innings, but still did not give Nitish the ball through the Test match and had limited bowling duties in the Ahmedabad Test. Skipper Shubman Gill, when asked about his selection in the game, said he wanted consistency in picking players in both home and away series.
“He didn’t really get to bowl in this match. We don’t want players to only play matches overseas. That puts a lot of pressure on the players. We want to groom certain players that we think can help us win matches overseas because that’s been a challenge for us,” Gill said to the broadcasters after India won the second Test by seven wickets in New Delhi.
Earlier, “NKR not bowling a single over in the 200+ overs India bowled in Delhi is baffling,” wrote Aakash Chopra posted on X.
Ahead of the match, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate on October 8 had said that they won’t be tinkering with their team combination in order to give Nitish time to develop into a seam allrounder for the future.
“One of the objectives, one of the sort of medium-term objectives, is to develop a seam bowling all-rounder for India. It’s very important when we go away on tours that we have that position coming. We didn’t get a very good look at Nitish last week, so I think it’s actually a very good opportunity to give Nitish another go and not alter the balance of the team. We think he’s a fantastic seam bowling all-rounder,” the former Netherlands captain had said.
So for Reddy not to get a look in as a bowling option in the second Test was a bit baffling to a lot of experts. Even former India and Karnataka cricketer Dodda Ganesh questioned the decision.
“How are you preparing Nitish Reddy for the all rounder role if you don’t give him bowling at all?,” Ganesh posted on his X account.
