Former Indian middle-order batter Ajinkya Rahane, who recently announced his retirement from all forms of the game, has reckoned that it would be a great opportunity for Nitish Kumar Reddy in the three-game ODI series against the West Indies at home.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rahane asserted that it’s very difficult to replace an all-rounder like Hardik Pandya. Unfortunately, Hardik has been ruled out of competitive cricket for at least three weeks after suffering a symptomatic right tibial bone stress response (shin injury) during his rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
“It is important to have competition, and it is good. The kind of all-rounder that Hardik is, it gets very difficult to fit in that role for any team. Unfortunately, Hardik has been away for a long time due to injury. Nitish came back from injury and did well as a bowler in the last series. It will be important for Nitish to forget what he did in the last series and look at being consistent. No one knows when Hardik will be back. Filling his role is very difficult. But Nitish has a good opportunity to prove himself as an all-rounder,” Rahane said on his Hindi YouTube channel.
Further, Rahane asserted that there was no need to compare Hardik and Nitish Reddy. Notably, the latter put up an excellent performance with the ball in the recent three-game T20I series against Afghanistan, securing six wickets in three games.
“There is no need to compare Hardik and Nitish as both are very different players with different skill sets. It will be a mistake if Nitish compares himself to Hardik. He has to bring in his game and his personality and back that,” he added.
