Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Subramaniam Badrinath has lashed out at the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir for persisting with the all-round trio of Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Interestingly, all three players were included in the Indian squad for the Afghanistan T20I series, subject to fitness clearance. However, Rana has been ruled out of the T20I series and the Asian Games 2026, with Yash Thakur replacing him.
“All three come into the all-rounder category. In this, Sundar and Nitish are definite all-rounders. But with Harshit Rana, they are trying very hard to make him an all-rounder. Gautam Gambhir seems hell-bent on creating all-rounders and multidimensional cricketers. Because of that desperation, these three are constantly getting picked even when they are dealing with injury issues,” Badrinath said on his YouTube channel.
“But they are not able to create the next proper all-rounder. There is no one after Hardik Pandya who is a proven all-rounder. But they are desperately trying to create more. This desperation is the reason they are getting picked even though they don’t clear the fitness parameters,” he added.
The three-match T20I series between Afghanistan and India will commence on Sunday, September 13, in Delhi.
India’s updated squad for Afghanistan T20Is: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson [WK], Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur
India squad for the 2026 Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur
