India head coach Gautam Gambhir has confirmed that both Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy could feature together in the national team’s playing XI once the former proves his full match fitness and is ready to handle a 10-over bowling workload in the ODI format.
Following India's 3-0 T20I series sweep against Afghanistan, Gambhir shared key insights regarding his roadmap for India's pace-bowling all-rounders looking ahead to next year's ODI World Cup in Africa.
Pandya, who has been out of competitive action since the end of the IPL 2026 season in May due to a quadriceps injury, was overlooked for the upcoming ODI series against the West Indies as he is not in a position to deliver 10 overs.
Gambhir emphasized that the team management will not rush him back into international cricket. To prove his match fitness and build up his bowling stamina, Pandya has been named in the India A squad for an upcoming series against Australia A in Puducherry.
"Hardik at the moment, yes, he cannot bowl 10 overs and he hasn't played a lot of cricket since the IPL. So we don't want to push him into international cricket because international cricket can be extremely tough on your body as well," Gambhir told reporters. "So if he plays that India A series, obviously he'll get some game time as well. And that was the clear message to him that if he can play that 'A' series and then if everything goes well, he can come back and be part of the T20s and the One Day squad as well."
In Hardik’s absence, Gambhir has been highly impressed with Nitish’s progression. To accelerate his development in the 50-over format, the 23-year-old was deliberately withdrawn from India's Asian Games T20 squad. He will instead join the ODI squad to get critical game time in the upcoming series against the West Indies.
"From Nitish's point of view, it's actually a great thing that he's been withdrawn from a T20 format and he'll get game time against West Indies as well. We know how important seam bowling all-rounders will be probably in a year's time when we go to South Africa and once Hardik comes back, obviously he's going to be good. Sometimes we could even go on to play both of them in the playing 11," Gambhir said.
Nitish, who returned from an injury of his own, impressed one and all with his bowling display in the just-concluded T20I series against Afghanistan. He claimed six wickets across three matches to help India sweep the series.
Gambhir was effusive in praise of Nitish’s performance against Afghanistan. "It's been a huge plus for us because we want to expose him to most of the international game because we know how important he is, whether it's in 50-over format or going forward in T20s as well because, you know, there are not many going around guys who can bowl and who can bat at the middle order. So it's a massive positive that the way he's bowled in this series," the coach remarked.
