“Why was he picked?” - Ravi Ashwin questions an Indian player’s spot in the Indian ODI squad

Ravi Ashwin questioned why Nitish Kumar Reddy was excluded from the 1st ODI XI vs. South Africa despite Hardik Pandya's injury. He asked: "Why was he picked?" and demanded a review of the squad selection.

By Jack 02 Dec 2025 in Cricket

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Former Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin has questioned the Indian team management for picking Nitish Kumar Reddy, the batting all-rounder, in the ODI squad for the three-match series against South Africa, but he couldn’t make it to the playing XI for the first ODI in Ranchi.

Notably, Nitish Reddy was selected as a replacement for the injured Hardik Pandya. However, he failed to make it to the final playing XI for the first ODI, which raised a lot of questions among the Indian cricketing fraternity. Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel, has stated that selection must be properly reviewed.

"If we are not able to find a place for Nitish Kumar Reddy in a team that does not have Hardik Pandya, then there is something wrong in the squad selection, seriously. Why was he picked? Because the fact is that he can give what Hardik can give, and can get better over a period of time. But if we can't find a place for Nitish Kumar Reddy in this particular XI, then the squad selection must be properly reviewed," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Furthermore, Ashwin also credited the former Indian captain Rohit Sharma and ex-Indian head coach Rahul Dravid for adapting the aggressive batting approach in the white-ball formats to take India to the next level, as seen in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 and ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

"Rohit, as a captain, has always been laying his stamp by showing the team what he wants from it. The transitional batting that India has gone through in T20 cricket and ODI cricket-the way we bat fast-a lot of credit for that goes to Rohit and Rahul bhai," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel 'Ash Ki Baat.' "They showed the way. Rahul bhai said this is how we have to play, and Rohit showed the way, paved the way, and eventually it has changed the way India perceived batting. Batting is not average; it is purely strike rate in white-ball cricket," he observed.

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