It seems that former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has expressed doubts on why all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Shardul have not been picked in the Test team for the five-match series against Australia. This statement from Harbhajan came at a time when there were reports of bright young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, making his Test debut in the first Test of the series in Australia Perth. Nitish, who had just a month before been in India and made his debut during the T20I series against Bangladesh, especially during a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, the India bowling coach Morne Morkel sang praises of him.
Although he has played only 23 first-class matches Nitish’s inclusion in the BGT series raised eyebrows for quite a number of people. However, in the course of the internal practice game, he managed to win over the selectors as well as the support staff, including Morkel.
Harbhajan, however, raised the issue of the unavailability of senior players Hardik and Shardul for the Test squad with the BCCI selectors.
“An all-rounder like Hardik Pandya was required. But now you have to place Nitish Kumar Reddy as there is no option available. Where have you lost Shardul Thakur? Where have you lost Hardik Pandya? We just limited them in the limited formats. Such a player was required. We were grooming Shardul for the last 2-3 years, what happened to him? He has not bowled in the last 4-5 matches, why?” Harbhajan said while speaking on ‘Jatin Sapru’ YouTube channel.
It is noteworthy that Hardik last appeared in a Test match in 2018, but Shardul had already been part of the Indian team, during its most previous tour to Australia. He even had aspirations of making it into the squad during this trip, however, the board felt inclined towards the lesser-known Nitish.
With speculation rife that Nitish will be making his debut in Perth, Harbhajan wants the young boy to be effectively utilized in the manner that the former India captain Sourav Ganguly used to do while taking a few overs of medium pace bowling in support of the bowlers.
“However, what he can do is just bowl a few overs here and there like how Sourav Ganguly would do, and if he gets 1-2 wickets then that will be a bonus,” he added.
