Pacer Harshit Rana, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy selected for Australia tour
New Delhi, Oct 25: Delhi speedster Harshit Rana and Andhra seam bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have earned their maiden call-up in the 18-member Indian team led by Rohit Sharma for the upcoming five-Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India will look to defend the trophy during the rubber that starts from November 22 at Perth.
However, pacer Mohammed Shami is not part of the squad while left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been advised long-term rehabilitation for his groin injury.
From the squad that was picked for the New Zealand series, Axar Patel has been dropped as off-spinner Washington Sundar, who has 11 wickets in his kitty so far in the ongoing Test in Pune, preferred over the Gujarat left-arm spinner.
Bengal man Abhimanyu Easwaran has entered the squad as reserve opener after four back-to-back hundreds in Duleep, Irani and Ranji Trophy matches.
The cover is because of the possibility of Rohit skipping one of the earlier Test matches due to personal reasons.
KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan make up for the middle-order with Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel being the two wicket-keepers.
Prasidh Krishna, the lanky pacer who made his debut in South Africa last year, is back in the squad after a long injury lay-off.
However, the story of this Indian team selection is hulk-like Delhi speedster Harshit, who is only nine First-Class matches old and has taken 36 wickets.
But with a stellar IPL season under Gautam Gambhir at KKR, Rana has come quickly into the national reckoning and has been part of the squads in all formats, although he is yet to make his debut.
He bowls consistently in the 140-click range and has a good short ball apart from being able to nail his yorkers perfectly.
“Harshit Rana has been completely Gautam Gambhir's choice. He has been pushing his case for the longest time since the start of the Sri Lanka tour.
“He was also kept as a reserve bowler. Since he is younger and quicker than both Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar, he has pipped them to the final squad,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
As far as Nitish Reddy is concerned, he has one century and two five-wicket hauls in his 21 First-Class games and he was more of a forced choice as the seam bowling all-rounder cupboard is bare.
“Hardik Pandya has stopped playing red-ball cricket and Shivam Dube's (he is injured) bowling isn't up to the mark.
“Nitish is a work in progress but if India are to bring in balance, they need their fourth seamer to be an all-rounder. Hence Nitish is a desperate choice going by his IPL and Bangladesh series performance,” the source said.
It is understood that it won't be surprising if Washington gets ahead in pecking order in Australia for the second spinner's slot (first spinner would be Ravindra Jadeja) over Ravichandran Ashwin due to his superior batting skills which has already been tested in Australia during the last tour.
Among batsmen, Easwaran was rewarded for his four hundreds on the trot but he could also be a stonewaller like Cheteshwar Pujara if needed be during any part of the series.
Axar had to miss out because he would have been one spinner too many with Jadeja already in the side.
Mayank Yadav injured again
India's fastest bowler Mayank Yadav is injured again after an impressive international debut against Bangladesh as he missed out on a tour of South Africa for the four T20Is.
KKR batting all-rounder Ramandeep Singh and Karnataka speedster Vyshak Vijaykumar are the new entrants in the T20I set-up.
Dube (back injury) and Riyan Parag (shoulder injury) are back at the Center of Excellence for extensive rehabilitation.
India's squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.
India's squad for 4 T20Is against South Africa: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
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Andhra to be developed as knowledge, creator economy hub: CM Naidu
New Delhi/Amaravati (PTI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday said the state is taking steps to transform itself into a knowledge and creator economy hub with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and quantum technology.
He noted that Andhra Pradesh has abundant tech-driven youth and the government is formulating plans to train them in futuristic technologies with support from global technology firms.
"Our goal is to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub by focusing on AI, quantum computing, data centres, drone cities and space cities. The youth will remain our biggest asset over the next 25 years, and we seek global partnerships to scale up the creator economy," said Naidu during his interactions at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi.
Naidu, who participated in the summit in the national capital, also held meetings with several global technology leaders and industrialists to explore collaborations in artificial intelligence, clean energy and innovation ecosystems.
He met Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Autodesk AI Head Mike Haley, Aramco India Director Abdul Rehman AiThukair, LEGO Education Vice President Tom Hall, Aadhaar Founder and CTO Srikanth Nadhamuni, Khosla Ventures Managing Partner Vinod Khosla and others at the AP Pavilion.
The chief minister also held discussions with Saudi Aramco representatives on clean energy projects, including solar initiatives, and invited the company to expand operations in Andhra Pradesh, stating that the state is highly suitable for green energy production.
He sought support from NVIDIA Vice President Callista Redmond for establishing AI Living Labs and proposed partnerships through the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub to promote youth innovation, including collaborations with IIT Tirupati and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati under the Andhra Pradesh Future Innovation and Research for Science and Technology (AP FIRST) initiative.
Naidu urged Autodesk leadership to support the development of Global Capability Centres in design engineering and requested the establishment of an Innovation Academy in Amaravati aligned with quantum technology, besides proposing AI and robotics learning labs in partnership with LEGO Education.
He also discussed AI-driven smart governance solutions with Quantela Inc Chairman Sridhar Gadhi, while World Bank Group Digital AI Regional Director Mahesh Uttamchandani met Naidu on the sidelines of the summit.
Following the meetings, Naidu visited various exhibition stalls at the summit, including those of NVIDIA, Tata, Intel and Microsoft, and reviewed AI applications across agriculture, healthcare and industry.
