Nitish Kumar Reddy has impressed one and all with his pace-bowling talent lately.
India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has impressed one and all with his pace-bowling talent lately. He could hold a key as the team management has started shortlisting players for the 2027 ODI World Cup in Africa.
To accelerate his development in the 50-over format, the 23-year-old Reddy was deliberately withdrawn from India's Asian Games T20I squad. He will instead feature in the home ODI series against the West Indies, slated to begin on September 27 in Thiruvananthapuram.
Ahead of the series opener, India bowling coach Morne Morkel stressed the importance of carefully managing Nitish, who recently made a strong comeback from a quadriceps injury layoff by picking up six wickets in the T20I series against Afghanistan.
The team management wants Reddy to focus on consistency rather than overcomplicating things. Morkel mentioned that the message to him is to keep things simple and focus on the basics.
"I think with Nitish, if we just rewind to the T20s, the way he bowled in different situations has been very impressive. The message to him all the time is just to keep things simple and do the basics as well as possible. I think he's a very talented guy when it comes to bat, ball, and in the field.
"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 can we ask him to be as consistent, and how well can he fulfil just doing the basics as best as possible. I think that is another thing where we need to give him those opportunities to learn and grow.
"Luckily, we do have a bit of time now, and it will be great for Indian cricket if we can keep on developing him and for him to compete for that all-rounder spot. He's got all the talent and all the ability to do that, but for us it's just important to manage him quite well, to give him quite a simple role in terms of what he needs to go and do for the team," Morkel told reporters in a press conference on Friday.
Morkel also discussed player fitness and workload management, specifically regarding injured Indian all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana.
While Pandya has been sidelined ever since the end of IPL 2026 due to leg and quadriceps injuries, Rana suffered a quadriceps strain during match simulations while trying to achieve fitness clearance.
"We're constantly keeping an eye on workload management, how to give the guys the best opportunity to be fit and put their name in the hat for selection. We've got Hardik, Harshit Rana, all those guys still on the sidelines, and we're excited to get them back and get them playing and get them fit again.
"So that's part of our job to sit with the medical side and map that out. But there's definitely a plan for each and every individual, and we'll keep on monitoring that and coming up with the best way forward to give the selectors and to give everybody the best sort of group to pick from," he added.
With several key players missing due to injuries and Asian Games commitment, Morkel backed India’s bench strength to step up in a home ODI series.
"Obviously, you want to have your strongest and condition-wise the best playing on the field. Sadly, it's part of the game that the guys get injured at times, and we didn't ideally want them to fall injured.
"But luckily, like I said, we've got fantastic backup in the wings, and it's a great opportunity for the guys to go and play a game for India, to make a name for themselves and to compete. But ideally, hopefully we can get all the injuries out of the way and later down the year we'll be fine, and we can take it from there," he remarked.
Sharing his pitch assessment of the Greenfield International Stadium, Morne Morkel highlighted that despite recent bad weather, the track is shaping up to be a high-scoring, batting-friendly surface once the initial challenge of the new ball is navigated.
"For me, it's my second time also at the venue here. My last outing was the T20 against New Zealand, and it was quite a high-scoring game.
“So, just judging on last night's training, with all the weather we had around, I thought the ball would be moving around a lot. But it was actually good batting conditions. The guys said that the new ball was a bit challenging, but after that, there are still good surfaces to bat on, and I think it's going to be a good contest again between the bat and ball.
“I expect a high-scoring game, and both teams play a very attacking brand of cricket. So, I think it's just going to be the team that can sum up the conditions best in that first 15 to 20 overs, whether or not the ball is still new," he concluded.
(With IANS Inputs)