India National Cricket Team head coach Gautam Gambhir has opened up on the young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy not getting the opportunity to bowl in the second Test match against the West Indies National Cricket Team.
Gautam Gambhir justified Shubman Gill’s decision not to use Nitish Kumar Reddy, saying that whether the all-rounder bowled or not doesn’t matter because he did gain the experience of playing a Test match in home conditions
Nitish Kumar Reddy scored a good 43 vs the West Indies
The Andhra and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) all-rounder was part of India’s playing XI in both Test matches of the home series against the West Indies National Cricket Team.
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India registered a dominant 2-0 whitewash over the visiting team, but Nitish Kumar Reddy didn’t make any major contribution in the triumph despite featuring in the matches.
In the Test series opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled four overs in the first innings of the West Indies and didn’t bowl in the second innings. He also didn’t get the opportunity to bat in India’s only innings. The only notable thing that Nitish Kumar Reddy did in the match was a stunning catch that he took to send back Tagenarine Chanderpaul.
As the action moved towards the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the non-use of Nitish Kumar Reddy continued. In India’s first innings with the bat, the all-rounder slammed 43 runs, and after that, he just did the fielding.
India bowled 81.5 overs to bowl West Indies out for 248 and then imposed a follow-on. The Roston Chase-led side displayed a better performance in the innings and scored 390 in 118.5 overs. However, across both innings, Nitish Kumar Reddy wasn’t given a chance to bowl.
Look, for me, I think it’s not important how many overs he’s bowled – Gautam Gambhir
Speaking at the post-match press conference in Delhi, Gautam Gambhir said that Reddy gained a lot of experience on the field despite not getting to bowl. He stated:
“Look, for me, I think it’s not important how many overs he’s bowled. It’s important that he’s gaining experience, gaining experience at home as well. Sometimes you learn a lot just by playing a game of cricket as well. And it’s a Test match. And we don’t want to use a 23-year-old boy just on tough tours away from home. That’s not going to be fair on him, that we decide to play him only in overseas tour, be it Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, or England. I think when he’s done well overseas, he deserves a go in home conditions as well.”
Wherever we can get the opportunity to put him in Indian conditions, we’ll continue to do that – Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir further said that using Reddy only for overseas matches would he unfair and they want to give him opportunities in Indian conditions as well. He said:
“And wherever we can get the opportunity to put him in Indian conditions, we’ll continue to do that because it’s important for us to groom someone like Nitish because you know that there are not many seen bowling all-rounders. And we’ve spoken for decades and decades about seam bowling all-rounders. So whenever we’ll get that opportunity, we’ll keep grooming him,” he added.
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