India and Australia are set to kick off the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth on November 22. Australia announced a 13-member squad for the series opener and also confirmed a debut for the opener Nathan McSweeney but India are struggling to lock their playing XI.
India named a strong 18-member squad on October 25, way before their shocking 0-3 Test series loss at home against New Zealand. But since then, there has been no official update on the availability of captain Rohit Sharma and batter Shubman Gill for the Perth Test.
Both Rohit and Shubman are expected to miss the first match of the five-match series, which might pace a way for two uncapped players Abhimanyu Easwaran and Nitish Kumar Reddy. India's bowling coach Morne Morkel all but confirmed a Test debut for Nitish while answering the media questions in a press conference.
Nitish made his T20I debut against Bangladesh last month and was a surprise inclusion in India's Test squad for the BGT. He failed to make any impact with both bat and ball in the recent India A matches and boasts a not-so-impressive record with a bat in first-class cricket.
But Morkel pointed out the playing conditions that might prove handy for the 21-year-old right-arm pacer. The former Proteas all-rounder also added that Nitish might fill the all-rounder spot in India's playing XI as the surface at Optus Stadium is unlikely to offer any help for the spinners.
"Nitish Kumar Reddy is one of the young guys that we've mentioned," Morne Morkel said. "He's got that batting [and] all-round ability. He'll be a guy that can sort of hold that one end up for us. He hits the bat a little bit harder than you think. So on these sort of conditions where there might be a little bit of seam movement up front, especially the first couple of days, he'll be a handy bowler. He's very accurate, a wicket-to-wicket style of bowler. It's a lovely opportunity for him to fill that all-rounder spot.
"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's going to be the other quicks, time to catch their breath a little bit is going to be important. He's definitely a guy that is a player you can keep your eye on in this series."
