On Day 1 of the third Test in the present five-match series between England and India, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar felt Nitish Kumar Reddy was the best of the Indian fast bowlers. Nitish’s statistics were 2/46 in 14 overs at the end of the first day of play.
Manjrekar hoped Reddy would be able to carry the confidence he earned from bowling into his batting after a poor performance in the previous game.
“He was fortunate with Ben Duckett, but those two wickets are not indicative of how Nitish Kumar Reddy performed throughout the day.
He virtually looked like India’s finest seam bowler, which is saying something given Siraj, Akash Deep, and Bumrah,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.
“I’m hoping it (the double strike) boosts his batting confidence, because I believe he has something. Twin failures in the last Test are never good for a batter’s self-confidence. What he did was simple: he bowled within his limitations, and he doesn’t have a wide range. So he basically adhered to what he does best,” Manjrekar explained.
Reddy’s wickets came from Ben Duckett (23 off 40) and Zak Crawley (18 off 43). While Duckett was dismissed with a strangulation down the leg side, Crawley was bowled with a superb delivery that swung late and straightened off the ground, taking the outside edge of the bat.
The current game marks the first time India has bowled first in the series. The hosts finished the day on 251/4 after 83 overs, with Joe Root (99 off 191) and Ben Stokes (39 off 102) undefeated in the middle. In addition to Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah (1/35 in 18 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/26 in 10 overs) took wickets.
The hosts would be aiming to take the remaining wickets quickly on Day 2. The overall nature of the wicket was on the slowish side. There was some amount of variable bounce observed too, with quite a lot of balls not carrying properly to the wicketkeeper.
India
