It’s now amply clear that India are looking to move on from Hardik Pandya, although reluctantly. Injury-prone Pandya has been away from Tests for several years now. He plays white-ball cricket, and largely T20s. It’s been more than six months since he last played for India. Injuries and rehabilitation have kept him out of many an important series. Recently, to prove his fitness, he had to play one-day cricket against Australia A early next month, but he has now been ruled out due to a shin injury.
So, India now have no option but to look at other possibilities. They have tried Shivam Dube too, but sadly, he doesn’t inspire much confidence as a bowler. Nitish Kumar Reddy is now being looked at. He has had his share of injuries too, since his extraordinary Test debut in Australia almost two years ago. Recently, he could not play in Ireland, England and Sri Lanka due to a thigh trouble. Last year, knee injury and side strain plagued him.
Earlier this month, Reddy made a return to the team during the three-T20I series against Afghanistan in New Delhi and took six wickets in the last two games. Against the West Indies in the first ODI at Kerala this past Sunday, he bowled five overs and that involved one new-ball over (18 runs), three middle overs (20 runs) and one death over (1/7), and returned figures of 1/45.
Frankly, for whatever reasons, India appear to be playing it safe with him too, as they did with Pandya. Why just five overs, why not full 10 overs? Possibly, there were two reasons. Doesn’t have the fitness to bowl 10 overs or is not good enough. Either way, it’s not foolproof planning. Bowling coach Morne Morkel was asked about the Andhra allrounder a couple of days before the Kerala ODI, and what the South African replied showed two things. That Reddy was in the team management’s plans for the 50-overs World Cup next year, and second that he wasn’t expected to be a full-fledged allrounder, just a passable allrounder. Just bowl a few overs as he did against the Windies, and try to make up for bowling insufficiencies with batting, which he is much better at. However, there was no occasion for him to bat on Sunday.
“He always wants to be the guy who wants to create opportunities, and having that mindset is fantastic. But I think the role that we want him to play in certain situations is how we can ask him to be as consistent, how well he can fulfil just doing the basics as best as possible,” Morkel said.
Low expectations already! That’s not a good thing. He should be pushed to the limit. Pandya should have been pushed to the limit too. Too much leniency can be detrimental, as we have seen with the Baroda player. Reddy should be fit and good enough to bowl a full 10 overs in an ODI and a lot more in a Test, like a proper fast bowler. Good pace and good line and length. There is a time-honoured process to becoming a good fast bowler. From Wasim Akram to Kapil Dev to Shoaib Akhtar, they will tell you the same thing: bowl as much as possible and build your bowling muscles. That's where red-ball cricket comes into the picture.
Since May 30 last year, Reddy has played 10 first-class games and has bowled 749 balls (roughly 125 overs). 12.5 overs per game, on average. Now let’s take a look at his 50-overs contests since October 19 last year. He has played 14 games since, including the first one-dayer against the West Indies. Bowled a little over 75 overs in all. And the average per game comes to a little over 5. How do you develop a fast bowler if he does the bare minimum and is not thrown in at the deep end? Harsh as it may sound, it’s not going to work. He may prove to be a bigger disappointment than Pandya, who, at least at the start of his career, bowled a lot across formats.
The BCCI should encourage, particularly budding players, to play domestic red-ball and one-day cricket as much as possible. That’s the place, and those are the formats where players are truly made. Plus, it would have been much nicer if, before returning to the team for the Afghanistan T20Is, Reddy could have featured in the Duleep Trophy.