Gautam Gambhir's Rumoured Plan for Australia Criticized as 'Senseless'

Nitish recently made his international debut in the home T20I series against Bangladesh, impressing with 90 runs in three innings, which included a half-century, and taking three wickets. Following this, he was selected for the India Test squad for the upcoming tour of Australia. To help him acclimatize to the conditions, Nitish was sent to Australia to participate in two four-day match series against Australia A. However, his performance in Australia was not as strong as hoped, with Nitish scoring a total of 71 runs in four innings, including a disappointing duck, and managing to pick up just one wicket. It was a challenging debut Down Under for the talented all-rounder.

Rumours around Nitish's potential debut peaked on Sunday after the 21-year-old was seen having a lot of conversations with head coach Gautam Gambhir and some of the senior players at the WACA during Day 3 of the match simulation.

Former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh, taking to social media, called out the potential move as “senseless” as he reckoned Nitish is still underprepared for playing the longer format.

"Either pick a genuine bowler, or go with a genuine batter if you feel the batting needs to be bolstered. This fast-tracking of Nitish Reddy for tests serves no purpose. He is still undercooked to be playing the longer format," Dodda said in a post on X on Monday.

The Andhra cricketer played 23 First-Class matches, scoring 779 runs at 21.05 with one century and two fifties. He also picked 56 wickets at 26.98, comprising two five-wicket hauls.

His best performance came in the last Ranji Trophy season, where he not only showed his ability to swing the ball both ways in mid-130s but also was Andhra's top wicket-taker with 25 scalps at 18.76, which included a five-wicket haul against Mumbai, where he dismissed Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer.