NEWS
Follow UsIndian Test captain Rohit Sharma said he waned to have 8-9 fast-bowling options before travelling to Australia for the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting on November 22 in Perth. When India announced the squad for the three-Test New Zealand series, they named Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav, Nitish Reddy and Prasidh Krishna in the travelling reserves.
Prasidh seems to have injured himself once again during the first round of the Ranji Trophy but the other three are with the main squad in Bengaluru, which will host the first India-New Zealand Test from October 16 (Wednesday). The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep are part of the main squad, while Mohammed Shami is still recovering from an injury. There’s Yash Dayal too who was picked for the Bangladesh 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,” said Rohit ahead of the first Test against the Black Caps.
"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.
"When you see a talent, you want to try and bring them as close to the team as possible. In the short period of time, they have shown they have some ability as well. We want to keep them with the team and see whether they will be ready for international cricket or not. Especially Test cricket. Test cricket is a different ball game compared to white ball cricket. We want to keep them. We want to see what they can offer us. And have more options with us, more than anything else.
“We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried. We don't want to be worried or too heavily reliant on a few individuals.That is not the right thing to do. We want to look at the future at the same time. Try and make sure we get the right guys in as well.
"Sometimes you have to fast track someone. And that is only in the betterment of Indian cricket. We want to create guys where even if there are injuries, we have someone to quickly step in and take that role. Nitish and Harshit both are quite talented individuals. In the future, they are going to provide a lot of stability to the team moving forward. Just want to see what they are capable of, what they have to offer. Just having a chat around what they think about Test cricket and stuff like that. Because we don't get to talk to them so much. So it's always nice to just have them around and see their mindset, where they are at and what they think about playing Test cricket.”
India will play the first Test in Bengaluru before moving to Pune and Mumbai for the final two games. The Test team will then head to Australia for the big series.
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