Should Team India drop Nitish Kumar Reddy form ENG vs IND 4th Test XI?

Another must-win match slipped out of Team India's grip because of a collapsing batting unit. Lessons from the defeat in the 1st Test of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar trophy: Indian team management did some reinforcements in their playing combination for the following two matches.

They dropped Shardul Thakur, Sai Sudharsan, and Prasidh Krishna with the hope of taking the lead in the 5-match series. The dominating victory at Edgbaston raised the hopes high before the third match at Lord's. The inclusion of Nitish Kumar Reddy in the first XI came with some new hopes. Though he was far away from his best in the previous encounter. Still, the management relied on the young all-rounder, because another pace bowling all-rounder in the squad, Thakur, underperformed in the opening match, so the team decided to stay with Reddy.

The 22-year-old all-rounder, without claiming any wickets, got 1 run in each of the Edgbaston Tests. He appeared in the Lord’s Test match with a much-needed fresh breeze for him and for the team. Reddy helped Team India to get rid of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in the first innings with the new red ball. In the second innings, he again tricked England opener Crawley.

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Should any drop Reddy?

But during the batting work, which India needs badly to keep maintaining lower batting order shape, he remained unimpressed. From Reddy’s blade, only 30 and 13 runs came in the first and the second innings of the third Test, respectively.

So, the question remains, should Shubman Gill’s team reconsider their starting XI? Ravindra Jadeja, in the second innings, fought brilliantly and remained unbeaten for 61, but no one from the line-up stood tall to support him. England won the third match by 22 runs and took a 2-1 lead in the ongoing 5-match series.