Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina has hailed the Indian ODI team’s fearless approach and credited the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir for bringing in bowlers who can bat, the formula that could be successful in South Africa.
Speaking to Star Sports after India’s ODI series win over the West Indies at home, Raina showered praise on India’s process ahead of the mega event next year. India will lock horns with Australia in the campaign opener in October 2027.
“South African conditions will be challenging. The current Indian team that is playing has won three ICC trophies since 2024. The process has been good. They are playing with a fearless approach. Gautam Gambhir has also used players well. In 2011 and before, we used to have batters who can bowl. But now we have bowlers who can bat, and this formula will work as conditions will be tough,” Raina said on Star Sports.
“Nitish Reddy and Harshit Rana at number eight, with Hardik Pandya being amazing with his pace and batting, two out of these three will have to play in that lower order as batting becomes very crucial. If your top five works and then you have two all-rounders, you need those batters who can finish games when you are chasing 350-370. You need hard-hitters,” he added.
Further, Raina reckoned that Nitish Kumar Reddy, Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana need to be picked in the middle and lower-middle order slots for the team to be largely successful on challenging surfaces.
“Shubman has been batting well. Virat is scoring runs and even Rohit. But I feel the batters at number six, seven, and eight, they have to try Nitish and Hardik. But whenever Harshit has played, he has done well at number eight,” he concluded.
