Reddy has played just six ODIs so far with average returns, but with Hardik Pandya struggling with injuries, he could emerge as India’s back-up allrounder come the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Reddy has been down with injuries himself, most recently missing out on the series against Ireland and England with a quadriceps injury. He returned for the ODIs against Afghanistan, where he was expensive, but had excellent returns in the T20Is. He was a late inclusion in this ODI series after BCCI pulled him out of the Asian Games squad, with Pandya still not fit.
On Friday, two days before the opening ODI against West Indies, Reddy was one of the most impressive bowlers on display. He was nippy and got the ball to move away late and twice beat the outside edge of Shubman Gill’s bat, while inducing an outside edge off Rohit Sharma’s. He also looked fluent with the bat.
“I think the role that we want him to play in certain situations is: how can we ask him to be as consistent; how well can he fulfil just doing the basics as best as possible,” Morkel said. “I think that is another thing where we need to give him those opportunities to learn and grow.
“Luckily, we do have a bit of time now, and it will be great for Indian cricket if we can keep on developing him and for him to compete for that allrounder spot. He’s got all the talent and all the ability to do that, but for us it’s just important to manage him quite well, to give him quite a simple role in terms of what he needs to do for the team.”
With the ODI World Cup just a year away, India are now going into 50-over mode. After the three ODIs against West Indies, they will play five ODIs in New Zealand and three ODIs against Sri Lanka at home to end the year, before playing Zimbabwe in three ODIs at the start of 2027. While there will still be the odd experimentation and opportunities given to different personnel, Morkel wants the players to put themselves under “as much pressure” as they can and not be “protecting their own space”.
“Look, for me, the main focus I reckon would be: we can talk and you can look at different options, how you want to go about playing XI. But for me, the end of the day is that whoever walks onto the field now, up until the World Cup, starting on Sunday, needs to know that there’s a certain standard we want to achieve. I want these players to put themselves under pressure, as much pressure.
“I think coming to the World Cup on the biggest stage, you can’t decide a month or a week before the tournament that now we’re going to step things up. I think it starts now with this series against West Indies, how, with bat, ball and in the field, we put ourselves under pressure.
“I want to see guys going to Shubman and asking for the ball and wanting to create the wicket opportunities and not be sort of protecting their own space. I think that will be a great goal for us. You know, if we are maybe 30 for 4, who’s going to go and get that partnership and get us to 100? So if we can throw ourselves in certain situations and guys can figure out ways how to play those situations and learn and take learnings about that, there will be growth and that will help us down the line.”
Another thing India are closely mapping is the workload of their bowlers. India have been stung with injuries galore this year, particularly in the fast-bowling section, with Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Pandya and Reddy himself missing games.
“We’re constantly keeping an eye on workload management, how to give the guys the best opportunity to be fit and put their name in the hat for selection,” Morkel said. “We’ve got Hardik, we’ve got Harshit Rana, all those guys still on the sidelines and we’re excited to get them back and get them playing and get them fit again. So that’s part of our job to sit with the medical side and map that out.
“But there’s definitely a plan for each and every individual and we’ll keep on monitoring that and coming up with the best way forward to give the selectors and to give everybody the best sort of group to pick from.”
Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with Cricinfo
