Delhi speedster Harshit Rana and Andhra all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have earned their first call-ups in the Rohit Sharma-led 18-member Indian squad for the upcoming five-Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Delhi speedster Harshit has just nine first-class matches where he has taken 36 wickets. But with 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 made squads across all formats, though he has yet to -a. debut. A BCCI source revealed that Rana was only Gambhir’s choice

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

He bowls consistently in the 140-click range and has a good short ball, apart from the fact that he can keep his yorkers perfectly.

“He was also kept as a backup bowler. As he is younger and faster than both Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar, he has made it to the final squad,” added the source.

However, pacer Mohammed Shami is not part of the squad while left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been advised long-term rehabilitation for his groin injury.

From the squad that has been picked for the New Zealand series, Axar Patel has been dropped as Washington Sundar, who has 11 wickets in his kitty so far in the ongoing Pune Test, has been preferred over the Gujarat left-arm spinner.

Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran came into the team as a backup opener after back-to-back four hundreds in Duleep, Irani and Ranji Trophy matches.

The cover is due to the possibility of Rohit skipping one of the earlier Test matches due to personal reasons.

KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan make up the middle order with Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel being the two wicketkeepers.

Prasidh Krishna, the lanky pacer who made his debut in South Africa last year, has returned to the team after a long injury layoff.

As for Nitish Reddy, he has a century and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 first-class games and has been more of a forced choice as the all-rounder’s bowling cupboard is empty.

“Hardik Pandya has stopped playing red-ball cricket and Shivam Dube’s bowling (he is injured) is out of reach.

“Nitish is a work in progress but if India want to strike a balance, they need their fourth seamer to be an all-rounder. Hence, Nitish is a desperate pick based on his performance in the IPL and Bangladesh series,” the source said.

It is understood that it will not be a surprise if Washington moves up the batting order in Australia for the second spinner spot (the first spinner would be Ravindra Jadeja) over Ravichandran Ashwin due to his superior batting skills, which have already been tested in Australia during the game. the last round.

Among the batsmen, Easwaran was rewarded for his four hundreds on the trot, but he could also stonewall like Cheteshwar Pujara if needed at any part of the series.

Axar had to miss out as it would have been too much of a spinner with Jadeja already in the side.

Mayank Yadav injured again India’s fastest bowler Mayank Yadav is injured again after an impressive international debut against Bangladesh as he misses 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 setup.

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

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

India 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 Squad for 4 T20Is vs 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.

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