Should Nitish Kumar Reddy be backed in India’s T20I squad for Asia Cup 2025?

Since Gautam Gambhir's appointment as India's head coach, the other team's T20I approach has changed direction, especially concerning the playing XI, which has been a marked shift. In the 2024 Bangladesh series, India went with three spinners, two pacers, and two seam-bowling all-rounders. Against England, India once again went with three spinners and two seam-bowling all-rounders led by pacer Arshdeep Singh, as the lone pacer, and Hardik Pandya as the second pacer. The results were a sweep against Bangladesh 3-0 as well as a 4-1 series victory against England that was decisive.

With the World T20 coming, India can stay with the same combination but perhaps use the Asia Cup 2025 as a testing period. The Asia Cup begins on September 9 and India's first match will be against UAE. India has very good quality spin all-rounders in Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, but no successful fast-bowling all-rounder since Kapil Dev. Although Hardik Pandya is the number one choice, Shivam Dube, Ramandeep Singh, and Nitish Kumar Reddy could serve as back-ups, but none as full-time batting or bowling options.

See Also: Why Shreyas Iyer is a must-have in India’s T20I plans going forward, starting from the Asia Cup?

Hardik Pandya is likely to take on the role of first-choice pace-bowling all-rounder, but given both the likelihood of rotation and the injury possibilities, India will perhaps need an alternative to assess as well. For India, Nitish Kumar Reddy may effectively substitute for Hardik if he is unavailable as Reddy represents an excellent depth piece. In IPL 2025, Hardik was the first captain to register a fifer during an IPL match, but Hardik's problems with the bat, particularly in chasing during the 20-15 run chases, raise serious questions about his fitness, which is a continual concern on the watch list of India and makes it imperative that India identifies a strong backup in order to decide and maintain the preferred T20I mix going into the Asia Cup and World Cup.

Why Nitish Kumar Reddy Should Be Selected for the Asia Cup 2025?

Although Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, and Ramandeep Singh are potentially destructive batters, we can't really rely on them as bowlers. Dube has played 24 T20Is for India and has only taken 13 wickets at an economy rate of 9.36. In IPL 2025 he bowled just two overs and went for 32 runs. Ramandeep in comparison has bowled 20 balls in T20Is for India, taken one wicket and gone for 42 runs at an economy rate of 12.60. Ramandeep also hasn't bowled a single ball in IPL 2025. This just shows that beyond the first choice, there are struggles for India to produce genuine fast-bowling all-arounders, which further emphasizes the need for options to balance a squad.

Nitish Kumar Reddy represents the ultimate option as an all-rounder. As a strokeplayer he has scored 90 runs in three T20I innings with an average of 45.00 and a strike rate of 180, where he has scored one fifty. Bowling he has taken three wickets in three matches at 7.88 economy rate. After recovering from an injury he bowled five overs in IPL 2025 and took two wickets. The 22-year-old has also impressed in Tests throughout the tour of England with 343 runs from seven matches including a Boxing Day century and eight wickets.