IND vs AUS BGT 2024-25: Morne Morkel backs Nitish Kumar Reddy to come good in the series

Hyderabad: Being a part of any India vs Australia series, especially Down Under, is a dream come true for any cricketers. While they strive to live the dream, meeting expectations can sometimes bog down or motivate players and they end up on either end of the spectrum.

The India vs Australia Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, that starts at the Optus Stadium in Perth on November 22, is a litmus test for a lot of new faces in the Indian team, especially in testing Australian conditions.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Kumar Reddy are all raring to go in their first tour to Australia. Indian team’s bowling coach Morne Morkel heaped praise on Reddy and said he would be the one to watch out for. “He (Nitish Kumar Reddy) is one of the young guys that we have mentioned, he has got that sort of batting, all-round ability. He will be a guy that can sort of hold that one end up first. He hits the bat a little bit harder than you think. So, in these conditions where there might be a little bit of seam movement up front, especially the first couple of days, he will be a very accurate wicket-to-wicket style of bowler. It is a lovely opportunity for him to hold that allrounder spot,” Morkel opined on Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The former South African player said it would be interesting to see how Reddy is rotated among the seamers and spinners. “Any team in the world always wanted the allrounder to take that load off your fast bowlers, just to give them an extra bit of breathing time. So how we use him, how Jasprit is going to use him, with maybe the spinner, to give himself, whoever is going to be the other quicks, time to catch their breath a little bit is going to be important. He is a guy that is a player you can keep your eye on in this series,” Morkel added.

Morkel said the inclusion of Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana, along with Nitish Kumar Reddy, gives the Indian team a lot of variety in their bowling attack. “It is great to have them (Prasidh and Rana) around in the squad. I think they add a lot of variation to their attack, especially Harshit, who bowls at a good pace, finds a way to also extract some bounce out of the surface,” he said.

The Indian team’s bowling coach threw light on what he told Harshit, who is on his first tour to Australia. “It is their first tour, Prasidh had a bit of experience with India A tour where he had a bit of game time, but for Harshit it is a bit of an unknown. My message to him was just, when I toured my first time here, playing in Australia, an intimidating place, to listen to the stories, take their advice. But for me it is just staying in your own bubble and finding those experiences, work them out for yourself,” he added.