Two Test matches into his career, Nitish Kumar Reddy has batted four times. He has top-scored in three of these and was unbeaten in the fourth, he is also yet to be dismissed for less than 40.

Reddy already has more 40s in Australia than Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni, and Ravindra Jadeja. His average in Australia(54.33) is higher than that of Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli – though it is probably not wise to use that parameter for a sample size as Reddy’s. And only three India players have hit more sixes than him there in Test cricket.

Three out of four times have India been bowled out for below 200 on this tour: in each instance Reddy was the difference between a humiliating failure and a “normal” failure. And he has done that by unleashing outrageous strokes on rampant Australian fast bowlers in their own den, impressing pundits and fans alike.

In Australia, one of the toughest places to debut, virtually no one batting outside the top seven has ever had a comparable start to their Test careers. Yet, his place may come under scrutiny when India select their XI for the third Test match, at Brisbane.

The problem

After being bowled out for 150 at Perth, Jasprit Bumrah hit back to leave Australia reeling at 19-3. Mohammed Siraj kept the pressure on, and Harshit Rana backed up by cleaning up Travis Head. After ending the day at 67-7, Australia fell to 79-9 on the second morning. Had the pesky last-wicket stand not lasted 18 overs, Bumrah would not have been forced to try out Reddy and Washington Sundar. The two men shared five overs of little relevance other than providing a break to the three fast bowlers.

India set Australia a near-impossible 534 in the match. They were always going to win, but Bumrah and Siraj made the job easier by reducing the hosts to 17-4. Australia eventually made 238.

Reddy bowled four overs for the wicket of Mitchell Marsh. Across the match, he returned 7-0-28-1 as India bowled 110 overs (including 93 overs of seam). He had two cameos with the bat, and did not bowl as much because the fifth bowler, or even the fourth, was not required.

But the support cast was required at Adelaide. Bumrah again got an early wicket, but as Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne dug in, Reddy bowled an insipid three-over spell towards the end of the first day. There was another two-over stint on the second morning – he got Labuschagne with a loose delivery – but he was taken off after that over.

The only other overs he bowled in the Test were “fillers” – just before Rohit Sharma claimed the second new ball in the first innings, and when Australia came out to chase 19 in the second.

To sum up, Reddy has bowled 14 overs out of India’s 200.5 across two Test matches, of which 165.5 were bowled by fast bowlers. India have stuck to five bona-fide bowlers for some time now, and Reddy was picked as the fifth bowler. Here, he has at best been a batter who has chipped in with a few overs.

This raises an obvious counterpoint. Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s fifth bowler and fourth seamer, has bowled only 21 out of their 265.1 overs (208.4 overs of pace). If Australia can persist with Marsh, why can India not with Reddy?

The answer partly lies in the two bowling attacks. At home, Australia have stuck to Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, their injury replacements, and Nathan Lyon for years. The three fast bowlers have often bowled long spells in these conditions in tandem with each other, and often with Lyon wheeling away at one end.

Their enviable record at home over the past decade has been built without a fifth bowler. They have mastered the craft of taking 20 wickets in familiar conditions with four seasoned bowlers.

India arrived in Australia with Bumrah and Siraj. In Mohammed Shami’s absence, they could have backed Akash Deep as the third seamer at Perth. Instead, they gave out Test caps to Harshit and Nitish at Perth. They won by a colossal margin, and backed both at Adelaide. One cannot blame them for that.

But at Adelaide, without any early burst of wickets, the inexperience of Harshit caught up with them. On a surface where Nathan Lyon was needed for a solitary over, there was little assistance for R Ashwin as well. The Indian attack simply was not incisive enough when neither Bumrah nor Siraj was bowling.

The way out

Will leaving out the lone spinner strengthen the Indian attack? Unlikely. There is a reason Lyon has not missed a home Test match since his debut. All three Indian spinners can bat, and all of them have had at least one impressive outing in Australia.

Will replacing Harshit by Akash address the problem? Akash has played five Tests, but all of them on Indian soil. His 10 wickets have come at 25.80, but he has bowled less than 14 overs a Test match. He has a very good first-class record (123 wickets at 22.98), but has gone wicketless in his only first-class match outside India – at Benoni in 2023-24.

Akash may be an improvement on Harshit. Perhaps he is the zing India need if the first change happens in the case that Australia survive Bumrah and Siraj and make it to 40-0. But he may not be, and if he is not, India will need their fourth seamer. And there is no evidence of Reddy being able to step into that role.

It is a small sample, but in Test cricket, Reddy has been less of a Shardul Thakur 2.0 and more of a Sanjay Bangar 2.0.

For the past few years, Thakur filled in as the fourth seamer. He debuted at home, but his other 10 Tests were all outside Asia. He was an acceptable No.8, but more significantly, he bowled about 24 overs a Test in these matches, taking 31 wickets at 28.09.

In his 12 Tests, Bangar scored three fifties (including a famous 68 in Headingley) and a hundred, but bowled less than 11 overs a Test. Even outside India, he bowled fewer than 15. His selection was a characteristic of Indian teams in an era when they hesitated to sacrifice batting for bowling.

Make no mistake. Reddy’s start has been astonishing – but perhaps not in the role India had needed him more. He has definitely added 25 runs per innings to the India total – but that is not the role India need at this point if they have their eyes on 20 wickets.

Harshit did look ordinary at Adelaide, but it was evident that the team management backed him over Reddy as the third seamer. If one seamer has to be left out, it will be Reddy – easily India’s most consistent batter of the series.

Of course, there is merit in playing Reddy instead of a specialist batter. Perhaps he will evolve into one of India’s top six over time and his bowling will be considered a bonus. But that is too left-field a tactic for India to adopt now, mid-tour. Especially when the weakest link of the batting has been their captain.

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