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Mayank Yadav, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna were announced as the travelling reserves of Team India for the three-match Test series against New Zealand that starts on Wednesday.
Nitish Kumar Reddy and Mayank Yadav during a training session ahead of the first cricket test match between India and New Zealand in Bengaluru. (Photo – PTI)
New Delhi: India captain Rohit Sharma is all set to lead the team in the three-Test affair against New Zealand that kicks off on Wednesday at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Notably, the 15-member Indian squad will be carrying a few travelling reserves for the entire series as well, which was the case during their campaign in the T20 World Cup 2024. Although none of them were used, things can be a bit different in the upcoming New Zealand series.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced a strong 15-man squad to take on New Zealand in a home series and also named four travelling reserves for the series – Mayank Yadav, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna. It was indeed a surprise as Mayank and Nitish only recently made their T20I debuts while Harshit was on the verge, fans lauded the braveness of BCCI to name the players for Tests in no time.
Krishna was supposed to be with the team but has now reportedly suffered another setback during Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy encounter, according to a Cricbuzz report. Rohit addressed the media ahead of the first Test in Bengaluru where he weighed in on the fact of taking travelling reserves with them and outlined their importance in the team. He mentioned that all the backups are in with a fair chance to be considered for the upcoming Border Gavaskar series.
“The reason we wanted to keep them close to us was because we are thinking of them to take them to Australia. So we just want to monitor them and see their workload. A lot of these guys have injuries in the past. So it’s important that we try and build them up and see what kind of options do we have. Like I said, we want to create bench strength. We want to create a group of fast bowlers where we have 8 or 9 options with us. It’s not about 3 or 4 options. So we want to try and do that,” Rohit explained as quoted by Cricbuzz.
‘We want to make sure…’: Rohit
“When it comes to batting, there are a lot of options. We want to create the same with the bowlers as well. Hence, we tried and kept them within the squad. So tomorrow, if we feel like they are ready to take that role, they should be ready for it. They have obviously played a few games before we made this announcement. They have played the Duleep Trophy, Irani Trophy as well. So we just want to make sure that they are monitored quite well. Their workloads have been taken care of,” Rohit added.
Rohit heaped praise on all the newbies and said that talent needs to stay as close to the team as possible. The Indian skipper was also thoughtful about the possible injuries to the main squad, highlighting the reserves’ importance as they can quickly step in and take that role. Rohit insisted on creating the bench strength so that they don’t remain worrisome throughout the series, being too heavily reliant on a few individuals.
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