Australia tour: Meet squad rookies Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy

The newcomers for a high-profile Test series like the upcoming one Down Under are expected to attract a lot of eyeballs, and it’s no different in the case of Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy. It’s a jumbo 18-member squad which the BCCI announced late on Friday evening along with three travelling reserves, though the urgency of rushing the announcement right in the middle of another Test series seems a bit strange.

The selection of Abhimanyu Eshwaran, former Bengal captain and a prolific scorer in domestic cricket this season, had been on expected lines as the think tank wanted to take a reserve opener with skipper Rohit Sharma being unavailable for the first Test owing to personal reasons. Even though he is also uncapped, the 29-year-old right-hand batter’s name had been in the mix for red ball cricket for number of years, while he was sent to the UK once as a cover during the Covid 19 pandemic.

However, it’s the selection of Harshit — a Delhi speedster with only nine first class matches behind him — and Nitish, the seaming allrounder from Andhra Pradesh, which evokes a great deal of curiosity. Harshit, who impressed all and sundry for Kolkata Knight Riders during their title-winning IPL 2024 season, has got the nod as a fifth seamer as there is always a question mark over the propensity of Prasiddh Krishna (also in the squad) breaking down in the middle of a tour.

No Shami

The absence of senior pro Mohammed Shami, yet to completely recover from an ankle injury, may have embedded doubts in the minds of the selectors as their pace attack looks too overtly reliant on Jasprit Bumrah. Harshit, who bowls consistently in the 140-click range and has a good short ball, can also nail his yorkers well and apparently found a backer in head coach Gautam Gambhir.

A PTI report quotes a BCCI source as saying that Gambhir, who was a KKR mentor, has been an aggressive advocate for Harshit as he is younger and quicker than Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar (travelling reserves).

“Harshit Rana has been completely Gautam Gambhir's choice. He has been pushing his case for the longest time since the start of the Sri Lanka tour. He was also kept as a reserve bowler. Since he is younger and quicker than both Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar, he has pipped them to the final squad,” the sources said.

Seaming allrounder

Nitish, who made his T20I debut in the Bangladesh series, is the only seam-bowling all-rounder in the Test squad. A rookie who took his IPL bow for Sunrisers Hyderabad, he seems to be more of a desperate choice as the seam bowling allrounder’s cupboard in clearly bare, with Hardik Pandya's decision not to play red ball cricket and the injury to Shivam Dube.

The 21-year-old Nitish has one century and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 first class games, while the SRH management showed faith in him in batting up the order if required.

The India versus Australia Border-Gavaskar Trophy will begin with the first Test in Perth on 22 November. The second Test will be a Day/Night affair at the Adelaide Oval starting on December 6. The teams will then travel to Brisbane for the third Test on December 14. This will be followed by the Boxing Day Test (Melbourne) and the New Year’s Test (in Sydney).

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.