Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy earn maiden call-up; Shami out for Australia tour

Delhi speedster Harshit Rana and Andhra seam bowling allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have earned their maiden callup in the 18member Indian team led by Rohit Sharma for the upcoming fiveTest series against Australia for the BorderGavaskar Trophy 202425India will look to defend the trophy during the rubber that starts from November 22 at PerthHowever pacer Mohammed Shami is not part of the squad while leftarm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been advised longterm rehabilitation for his groin injuryFrom the squad that was picked for the New Zealand series Axar Patel has been dropped as offspinner Washington Sundar who has 11 wickets in his kitty so far in the ongoing Test in Pune preferred over the Gujarat leftarm spinnerBengal man Abhimanyu Easwaran has entered the squad as reserve opener after four backtoback hundreds in Duleep Irani and Ranji Trophy matchesThe cover is because of the possibility of Rohit skipping one of the earlier Test matches due to personal reasonsAlso ReadIndia crumble under Santners spellKL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan make up for the middleorder with Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel being the two wicketkeepersPrasidh Krishna the lanky pacer who made his debut in South Africa last year is back in the squad after a long injury layoffHowever the story of this Indian team selection is hulklike Delhi speedster Harshit who is only nine FirstClass matches old and has taken 36 wicketsBut with a stellar IPL season under Gautam Gambhir at KKR Rana has come quickly into the national reckoning and has been part of the squads in all formats although he is yet to make his debutHe bowls consistently in the 140click range and has a good short ball apart from being able to nail his yorkers perfectlyldquoHarshit Rana has been completely Gautam Gambhirs choice He has been pushing his case for the longest time since the start of the Sri Lanka tourldquoHe was also kept as a reserve bowler Since he is younger and quicker than both Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar he has pipped them to the final squadrdquo a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymityAlso ReadSantner takes centre stage in PuneAs far as Nitish Reddy is concerned he has one century and two fivewicket hauls in his 21 FirstClass games and he was more of a forced choice as the seam bowling allrounder cupboard is bareldquoHardik Pandya has stopped playing redball cricket and Shivam Dubes he is injured bowling isnt up to the mark Nitish is a work in progress but if India are to bring in balance they need their fourth seamer to be an allrounder Hence Nitish is a desperate choice going by his IPL and Bangladesh series performancerdquo the source saidIt is understood that it wont be surprising if Washington gets ahead in pecking order in Australia for the second spinners slot first spinner would be Ravindra Jadeja over Ravichandran Ashwin due to his superior batting skills which has already been tested in Australia during the last tourAmong batsmen Easwaran was rewarded for his four hundreds on the trot but he could also be a stonewaller like Cheteshwar Pujara if needed be during any part of the seriesAxar had to miss out because he would have been one spinner too many with Jadeja already in the sideMayank Yadav injured again Indias fastest bowler Mayank Yadav is injured again after an impressive international debut against Bangladesh as he missed out on a tour of South Africa for the four T20IsKKR batting allrounder Ramandeep Singh and Karnataka speedster Vyshak Vijaykumar are the new entrants in the T20I setupDube back injury and Riyan Parag shoulder injury are back at the Center of Excellence for extensive rehabilitationIndias squad for the BorderGavaskar Trophy 202425 Rohit Sharma C Jasprit Bumrah VC Yashasvi Jaiswal Abhimanyu Easwaran Shubman Gill Virat Kohli KL Rahul Rishabh Pant WK Sarfaraz Khan Dhruv Jurel WK R Ashwin R Jadeja Mohd Siraj Akash Deep Prasidh Krishna Harshit Rana Nitish Kumar Reddy Washington SundarReserves Mukesh Kumar Navdeep Saini Khaleel AhmedIndias squad for 4 T20Is against South Africa Suryakumar Yadav C Abhishek Sharma Sanju Samson WK Rinku Singh Tilak Varma Jitesh Sharma WK Hardik Pandya Axar Patel Ramandeep Singh Varun Chakaravarthy Ravi Bishnoi Arshdeep Singh Vijaykumar Vyshak Avesh Khan Yash DayalWith agency inputs