India captain Rohit Sharma revealed the reason behind including Mayank Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy and others as roaming reserves for the New Zealand series.
Rohit Sharma said they wanted to keep these players close to the team to monitor their workloads and assess their readiness for Test cricket.
Indian selectors have picked a 15-member squad for the upcoming three-match series against New Zealand, starting in Bengaluru on October 16.
Mayank Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana have also been named as roaming reserves for the upcoming home series.
A lot of these guys have had injuries in the past – Rohit Sharma
In the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said that they want to strengthen the bench in the bowling department. Rohit said that they are considering taking these players to Australia for the much-awaited Test series later this year.
“The reason we wanted to keep them close to us is because we are thinking about taking them to Australia. We just want to monitor them and see their workloads. A lot of these guys have had injuries in the past. So it’s important to strengthen them and see what they can offer. We want to create bench strength, we want to create fast bowlers,” Rohit told reporters.
We want to do the same with the bowlers too – Rohit Sharma
The Indian captain said the team has eight or nine options available instead of just three or four. He added that they want to create more depth in the bowling department like they have done in batting. Rohit stated that these players have participated in the Duleep Trophy and the Iranian Cup.
“We have 8 or 9 options with us. It is not about 3 or 4. When it comes to batting, we have many options, we want to do the same with the bowlers too,” Rohit added.
“So we wanted to keep them close to the team. Tomorrow, if we feel they are ready to go out on the field, we should have them ready. They have also played in the Duleep Trophy and the Iranian Cup. We just want to make sure they are well controlled.”
We want to keep them – Rohit Sharma
The 37-year-old batsman said they would assess whether the players are ready for Test cricket. He admitted that they haven’t had much experience with red-ball cricket, but they have shown promise in a short time.
“We have seen some talent in them. They haven’t played much red-ball cricket, but we want to try to prepare them and get them as close to the team as possible. In a short period of time, they have shown they have some ability too.”
“We want to see if they are ready for Test cricket. We want to retain them and see what they can offer us. We want to build strength in the bench so that if something happens to someone tomorrow, we are not worried.”
Mayank played only one first-class match, where he took two wickets at an average of 23.00. Nitish has played 20 first-class matches, scoring 627 runs at an average of 20.22. He has also taken 54 wickets at an impressive average of 25.61.
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