The newfound burst in Nitish Kumar Reddy’s confidence is evident in the nets. He rushes to mark his run-up; he rushes through his deliveries and overs, and puts in long spells. He hurries batsmen; that addition of two extra yards is evident to the naked eye. In both practice sessions in Thiruvananthapuram, he moved the ball late in the air under glowering skies.

His ODI experience is limited—just six games, wherein he has bowled merely 30 overs and claimed two wickets, bleeding seven runs an over—but his sharper avatar in the T20 series against Afghanistan would brighten his prospects for the ODI World Cup next year. Besides, he could solve the nagging headache of finding an alternative for the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. He could be groomed into the Plan B if Pandya breaks down. He could vie for a spot of his own, if he replicates the T20 form in longer formats.

Bowling coach Morne Morkel is excited about the product Nitish has transformed into. “It will be great for Indian cricket if we can develop him, keep on developing him and for him to compete for that all-rounder spot. He’s got all the talent and all the ability to do that. Luckily we do have a bit of time now,” he says.

Story continues below.
Subscribe to see fewer ads.

The brief has been simple. “Keeps things simple and do the basics,” reveals Morkel. “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,” he details.

Nitish has dutifully followed the instructions. He doesn’t try to bowl as fast as he can; he has resisted the temptation to over-experiment; he doesn’t stray on the fuller side in search of non-existent swing. He is now self-contained for someone who is an over-eager cricketer. “He always wants to be the guy that wants to create opportunities and having that mindset is fantastic,” says Morkel. “For us it’s just again important to manage him quite well, to give him quite a simple role in terms of what he needs to go and do for the team,” he adds.

FILE – Nitish Kumar Reddy in action. (BCCI)

There, though, are other headaches for Morkel. Not quite a full-blown migraine, but a stabbing, recurrent pain. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, fulfilling Asian Games commitments, and Mohammed Siraj, there is no guaranteed starter. Prasidh Krishna’s form has been as fickle as the Thiruvananthapuram weather. Dry spells interspersed with heavy downpours. The five-for against Afghanistan was followed by a caning in England. Harshit Rana is often on the injury table; Arshdeep Singh’s economy rate has soared in the last stretch of his 50-over career. Gurnoor Brar is raw, and Auqib Nabi is unproven. “I think it’s very important for those guys to get the game time, to get a feel of the standard that, you know, we’re looking to play,” he says.

“You know, we had a good team meeting and conversation today about how we would like to play this series and the standards we want to set,” he adds.

Story continues below this ad

On the road to the World Cup, Morkel wants his bowlers to “step up” immediately. “You can’t decide a month or a week before the tournament that we’re going to step things up. I think it starts now with this series against the West Indies,” he stresses.

“Like how to keep the bad ball away, the fields, and how we can put ourselves under pressure. I want them to ask for the balls and create opportunities and not be sort of protecting their own space. I think that will be a great goal for us, if we can develop guys wanting (to bowl) in tough situations. If guys can figure out ways to play those situations and learn and take learnings from that, there will be growth and that will help us down the line,” he elucidates.

All this has to be juggled with workload management, more so for all-format cricketers like Bumrah and Siraj, with important series like the New Zealand tour and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy lined up. “That is part of our jobs to sit with the medical side and map that out. But there’s definitely a plan for each individual and we’ll keep on monitoring that and coming up with the best way forward to give the selectors and give everybody the best sort of group to pick from,” he says.

And the proposed plan for Nitish is clear: to groom him not only as Pandya’s back-up but as his competitor too.