India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has said Nitish Kumar Reddy as the natural successor for Hardik Pandya when it comes to seam-bowling all-rounder. With Pandya still not certain to play ODIs, India have been investing on Reddy over the last 18 months and having added a few extra yards of pace, they are grooming him for next year’s World Cup.
Although it could come down to one spot between Pandya and Reddy incase the former regains full fitness and is available for ODI selection, Ten Doeschate revealed having as many all-rounders as possible will offer India the much-needed balance in the format, which is lacking at present. “When Hardik’s fit, he obviously brings a different element because he’s such a strong batter, such a strong finisher. That sort of role scarcity is difficult to find a finisher who can give you overs as well. So those guys are all tracking really nicely. Like I said with Nitish, for the last 18 months he’s shown glimpses of how important he can be to this team, particularly in this format. I feel his body’s getting stronger and stronger and I sort of feel he is the natural successor or back-up to Hardik,” Ten Doeschate said.
Beyond Reddy, India have tried to look at someone like Harshit Rana as well as a batting option down the order. In the last couple of ODI series against South Africa and New Zealand, India tried Rana at No 8 as an option, but he remains a work in progress with his fifty showing encouraging signs. For the series against Afghanistan India brought in Gurnoor Brar, another seamer who can be handy with the bat. But Ten Doeschate said they need to be looked more as a bowling all-rounders.
“I would still say the majority of those guys are bowling allrounders. But certainly to see these other guys chipping in and working on their games, even someone like Gurnoor and Harshit again, they’re bowling all-rounders. But the fact that we feel we’ve got guys who can hold the bat at No.9 and obviously looking forward for the next 14-15 months, that is going to be very important, especially in South Africa when you want to play three proper out-and-out seamers. Those guys are going to need to bat. So yeah, a lot of good signs on the allrounder front and also on the fast bowler front. I think it’s been refreshing this week to see Prince, Gurnoor and Nabi,” the former Dutch captains said.
