Indian Selectors Eye Nitish Reddy, Shardul Thakur as Fast-Bowling All-Rounder for Australia Tour: Report

As the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is slowly upon us, there has been a major development regarding the squad that Team India will pick for the Australian tour, next month.

It is reported that the Indian selection committee are looking for a fast-bowling all-rounder for the Australia series with the likes of Nitish Reddy and Shardul Thakur as front-runners for the spot in the Indian squad.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the senior selection committee is set to meet in Pune after the second Test between India and New Zealand and the Indian squad will head to Perth on November 10.

Considering the length of the tour, and the series being a five-match affair, the Indian team would be comprised of a fairly large squad which includes net bowlers.

Shardul Thakur has been a part of the Indian Test side and had a decisive role to play in India’s famous victory over the Aussies at the Gabba in 2022. But since India toured South Africa in December 2023, he has not been involved in the Test side. Still, he has been a regular feature in the domestic circuit where he played a big role in Mumbai’s title-winning campaign in the previous Ranji Trophy season.

Nitish Reddy on the other hand is a fairly young prospect who had an impressive show in the Indian Premier League 2024 for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Since then he has been a part of the Duleep Trophy tournament and also made his T20I debut during the Bangladesh series recently.

The selectors will be keeping a close watch on Reddy’s performance during India A’s tour of Australia beginning later this month. They will want to assess whether the 21-year-old can handle bowling 10-15 overs in a day and also impress with the bat. The intra-squad game scheduled later in November will also be a key moment where Reddy can impress the team management ahead of the opening Test against Australia in Perth.

The report suggests that both Reddy and Thakur will compete for a single spot, and it will be interesting to see which side the selectors choose as their fast-bowling all-rounder solution for the Indian squad.