Sunil Gavaskar Sounds Alarm Bell For BCCI, Indian Team Over Two Players: "Don't Rush Them In"

Nitish Kumar Reddy was in fine form for India against Afghanistan in the second T20I in New Delhi on Tuesday. The all-rounder picked up three wickets for 24 runs. Sunil Gavaskar was impressed by the rise of Reddy. After Hardik Pandya, Reddy is being seen as a top fast-bowling all-rounder option. "Nitish Kumar Reddy is a very fine prospect. When he started in the IPL, he wasn't much of a bowler then, in that first year before he went to Australia. He was more of a batter. The batting technique was very good. He bowled a couple of overs towards the end of that first season, and that's where he looked as if he could be a very fine all-round cricketer," Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network.

Gavaskar also picked Venkatesh Iyer and Suryansh Shedge as two promising all-rounders whom India can bank on in the future.

"Venkatesh Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, these are all promising all-rounders, and they have to be given the opportunity to develop. Don't rush them in. Develop them and also, at the same time, encourage them when they don't have a good match," he said.

"These are the guys you want to keep an eye on. Help them and encourage them to take their bowling a little more seriously because they are primarily in the team as batters. Sometimes, when you are in the team primarily as a batter, you tend to think like a batter. If they start to think a little bit like bowlers, they will be absolutely fantastic, and India will then have more options."

Meanwhile, after a match-winning spell with the ball, Indian all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy reflected on the time spent during rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and how he kept his positivity intact in the face of injuries and some poor performances. Now, the young all-rounder aims to carry forward the confidence gained from the three-wicket haul against Afghanistan in the second T20I.

After months of rehabilitation and injuries that kept him away from the field following what seemed to be a breakthrough Indian Premier League (IPL) season with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Nitish gave India a massive ray of hope in the pace-bowling all-rounder's role with figures of 3/24 against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, sealing the series for India with the ball.

Managing 302 runs, including a fifty, in 13 outings and hitting the 140 kmph mark in the 2026 season, which yielded him eight wickets, Nitish could not build on that momentum as a quadriceps injury during the Afghanistan ODIs ruled him out of the T20Is against Ireland, England and Zimbabwe. An understudy and potential replacement for star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, the 23-year-old missed out on a lot of precious game time to hone his craft as a bowler.

However, in the second T20I against Afghanistan, which saw him claim the crucial wickets of skipper Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan, the pressure is off Nitish's shoulders for a while after producing a fine spell of 3/24 in three overs.

Speaking in a video released by the BCCI, Nitish, who was hit for 30 runs in two overs during the first T20I, said that one needs to stay positive and that God will deliver results at the right time. He expressed happiness over what could be a very important bowling performance for his career in the coming days and thanked the team management for its backing.

"You just have to be mentally positive and do the right things, and God will reward you at the right time. It feels great, you know; every player needs confidence when they are coming back from injury, and to be fair, the first game was not that great for me. In the second game, I felt much happier because any player would need this confidence, and I hope I can carry this confidence forward," said Nitish.

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