NEW DELHI: There’s growing concern in Indian cricket over the paucity of seam-bowling allrounders. The team management and the selectors are forever in the hunt to find a backup for the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. Even India’s dominant win over Afghanistan in the first T20I here on Sunday night couldn’t mask the big crack in their armour.Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube went for 51 runs in the three overs they bowled. More than the runs conceded, the fact that they came on to bowl only after the four frontline bowlers had broken the back of the Afghan batting is what will be more disconcerting for the team management. Captain Shreyas Iyer did go to Reddy first to bowl the quota of the fifth bowler, but couldn’t throw the ball back to him after two overs.It’s understandable that Reddy is also coming back from a three-month injury layoff while Dube has been bowling very little over the last two-three years. But it’s an area that the Indian team management is eager to cover when the prep for the ODI World Cup begins after the Asian Games. Effectively, the next T20Is against Afghanistan on Tuesday and Thursday before the Asian Games will be an audition for Reddy.Pandya is still working at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) on his fitness to be available to bowl 10 overs in an ODI. But the selectors are hamstrung by injuries to every potential option. Reddy himself spends as much time at the CoE as Pandya. Now, it has emerged that Suryansh Shedge and Venkatesh Iyer are too nursing injuries. Harshit Rana, too, has been breaking down frequently. It’s a bizarre situation for the selectors. Reddy is slated to be in Japan for the Asian Games when India play an ODI series against West Indies at home later this month.There’s no clarity on when Hardik will be declared fit for an international match. Thus, the next two matches here at the Kotla become extremely crucial for both Reddy and Dube.
Varun ruled out of Afghanistan series, fresh blow to CoE
Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the rest of two T20Is against Afghanistan to be played on Tuesday and Thursday. The details of the injury are awaited.His participation in the upcoming Asian Games will be decided after the BCCI‘s medical team assesses the injury. Chakravarthy’s injury is another jolt to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) under cricket head VVS Laxman.
