India’s captain Rohit Sharma explained the reason for this Mayank Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddyand the inclusion of others as travel reserves for New Zealand series.
Rohit Sharma said they want to keep these players close to the team to monitor their workload and assess their preparations for Test cricket.
The Indian selectors have named a 15-man squad for the upcoming three-match series against New Zealand starting on October 16 in Bengaluru.
Mayank Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana also named travel stocks for the upcoming home series.
Most Of These Guys Have Been Injured In The Past – Rohit Sharma
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said that they want to strengthen the bench in the bowling department. Rohit said they are thinking of taking these players to Australia for the highly anticipated Test series later this year.
“The reason we want to keep them close is because we’re thinking about taking them to Australia. We just want to monitor them and see their workloads. A lot of these guys have been injured in the past, so it’s important. We’re bench strength to build them and see what they can offer. we want to create, we want to create fast bowlers,” Rohit told reporters.
We want to do the same with the bowlers – Rohit Sharma
The Indian skipper said that there are eight or nine options for the team, not three or four. He added that they want to create more depth in the bowling unit as in batting. Rohit said that these players participated in Duleep Trophy and Iran Cup.
“We have 8 or 9 options with us. It’s not about 3 or 4. When it comes to batting, we have a lot of options, we want to do the same with the bowlers,” Rohit added.
“That’s why we wanted to keep them close to the squad. If we feel they’re ready to play tomorrow, we’ll have to prepare them. They’ve played in the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup as well. We just want to do that. Make sure they’re well looked after.”
We want to keep them – Rohit Sharma
The 37-year-old batsman said they will assess whether the players are ready for Test cricket. He admitted that they don’t have much experience with red ball cricket, but they have shown promise in the short term.
“We’ve seen some talent in them. They haven’t played a lot of red ball cricket but we want to try and develop them and get them as close to the team as possible. They’ve shown themselves in a short period of time. They’ve got some ability too.”
“We want to see if they are ready for Test cricket. We want to keep them and see what they can offer us. We want to build a bench strength so we don’t have to worry if something happens to somebody tomorrow.”
Mayank played only one first-class match where he took two wickets at an average of 23.00. Nitish played 20 first-class matches, scoring 627 runs at an average of 20.22. He also took 54 wickets at an impressive average of 25.61.
