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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Allahabad HC orders FIR against Rahul Gandhi in dual citizenship case
Lucknow (PTI): The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered an FIR be filed against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in connection with an alleged dual citizenship controversy.
The bench permitted the state government to hand over the probe to any central probe agency after registration of the FIR.
The order was passed by a bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi on a petition filed by S Vignesh Shishir, who had challenged a January 28 order of a special MP/MLA court rejecting his plea for an FIR against Gandhi, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The special court had earlier held that it was not competent to adjudicate on issues related to citizenship.
The petitioner, a BJP worker from Karnataka, had sought registration of an FIR and a detailed probe into the matter, levelling allegations against Gandhi under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Official Secrets Act, the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act.
The complaint was initially filed before the special MP/MLA court in Rae Bareli. However, on the petitioner's request, the high court transferred the case to Lucknow on December 17, 2025.
The MP/MLA court in Lucknow subsequently dismissed the plea on January 28, 2026, prompting the petitioner to approach the high court, which has now ordered registration of an FIR.
In its order, the bench said that from a bare perusal of the allegations, prima facie cognizable offences were made out against Gandhi and hence the allegations required to be investigated.
The bench said that the special court should have looked into whether the allegations prima facie made out any cognizable offences or not, but it failed to consider it.
Earlier, Deputy Solicitor General of India SB Pandey produced the central government's records in the court relating to the citizenship controversy surrounding Gandhi.
Government counsel VK Singh also consented on behalf of the UP government that the allegations prima facie made out cognizable offences.
After having a detailed hearing, the bench found that the material on records showed that Gandhi had committed "cognizable offences" in having dual citizenship, and these allegations required to be probed.
The petitioner has alleged that Rahul is a UK Citizen and incorporated a company named M/S Backops Ltd in August 2003.
It was further submitted that Gandhi categorically admitted and voluntarily declared his nationality as British, having a Director Identification ID and London and Hampshire addresses.
In his petition, Shishir claimed that Rahul submitted the company's annual returns in October 2005 and October 2006, listing his nationality as British.
Thereafter, the company was dissolved through a dissolution application in February 2009.
According to the petitioner, the material placed before the court includes records suggesting that Rahul Gandhi may have been listed as a voter in the United Kingdom and participated in electoral processes there.
During the course of the hearing, the high court earlier directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to place all relevant records, including classified documents, before the court.
