Did India Get Their Bowling Combinations Wrong Against New Zealand in Rajkot ODI?

India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate highlighted the lack of an extra spinner against New Zealand in the second ODI in Rajkot. India have historically played a spin-heavy bowling attack under new management across formats.

“If you look at the combinations we have played in the past, we do like the extra spinner. To bring Ayush [Badoni] into the squad at the very last minute with Washi [Washington Sundar], we thought Nitish [Kumar Reddy] should be better suited on this track. Obviously, looking at the way New Zealand spinners bowled, we could have done with another spinner tonight.”

India had the option of Ayush Badoni, especially after his improved bowling returns, as a like-for-like replacement for Washington Sundar; they instead opted for a pace-bowling all-rounder in Nitish Kumar Reddy. As it turned out, they only had two spinners – Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav – in the XI, and they were taken for aplenty, so it’s hard to see how Badoni, not a specialist tweaker, would have done any better.

How India underutilised Nitish Kumar Reddy despite poor performances from spinners

Right from his debut, India’s usage of Nitish Kumar Reddy across formats has been baffling, and a similar story unfolded against New Zealand in the second ODI. Playing as a batting all-rounder, Nitish came to bat at No.7, even behind Ravindra Jadeja, and couldn’t make a significant impact with the bat in the first innings.

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Later, he bowled only two overs when there was room for more after spinners failed to make consistent inroads and were taken for aplenty in the middle overs. Jadeja and Kuldeep were mightily ineffective, especially the latter, as they collectively conceded seven runs per over while taking only a solitary wicket across 18 overs.

That’s where India could have experimented with an extended spell for Nitish with a slightly older ball since there was some slowness and low bounce in the pitch. They don’t have any trust in Nitish’s bowling value, and whenever in the XI, his underutilisation with both bat and ball comes to the fore again.

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