Former India captain Kris Srikkanth criticized the team management for their continued faith in pacer Harshit Rana for ODIs. The 23-year-old was named in India’s ODI squad for the upcoming Australia tour, despite the absence of several senior players.
Although Harshit has featured in just five ODIs, he has an impressive record of 10 wickets at an average of 20.70 and an economy rate of 5.69. Srikkanth suggested that his association with head coach Gautam Gambhir at KKR during IPL 2024 may have influenced his repeated selection.
Discussing the young pacer’s inclusion on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth said, “Harshit Rana is a permanent because he is Gautam Gambhir’s favourite. He is always a certainty and the first name in the team sheet after Shubman Gill.”
The ex-India opener also raised doubts over all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s selection, stating:
“Where did Nitish Kumar Reddy come from? If you ask them, they’ll say he is Hardik Pandya’s replacement. But the actual replacement for Hardik is Ravindra Jadeja, not Nitish Kumar Reddy. Nitish Kumar Reddy will get clobbered in Australia in ODIs.”
“If you take him by considering him as an all-rounder, not at all fair. He is just a batsman who can bowl. He wasn’t even there in the Champions Trophy team. Nitish Kumar Reddy wasn’t even in the ODI Scheme of things. They’ve adjusted somehow to get him into the squad.”
“They’ll Stick With Him To Make Him All-Format Captain” – Kris Srikkanth On Shubman Gill
Kris Srikkanth feels that the team management is continuing to back star batter Shubman Gill in T20Is with the aim of grooming him as India’s all-format captain. The 26-year-old, however, had a disappointing T20 Asia Cup, scoring just 21.16 on average across seven matches without registering a single fifty.
“He wasn’t there in my Asia Cup squad itself. But they will persist with him because they want to make him the all-format captain. It is very obvious. Irrespective of whether he scores big or not, he’ll be made the all-format captain,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
However, the former opener welcomed the appointment of Shreyas Iyer as India’s ODI vice-captain.
“Shreyas Iyer did brilliantly in the Champions Trophy. And everybody knows he’s a good captain. So him being the vice-captain is a very good call. Now that they’ve made Gill the captain, Shreyas Iyer had to be the vice-captain,” he said.
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