Nitish kuma reddy

Nitish Kuma Reddy: India have handed debuts to seam-bowling all-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana, with Washington Sundar being the lone spinner, as stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and elected to bat first against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener at the Perth Stadium here on Friday.

India won the last two Test series played in Australia by identical 2-1 margins in 2018/19 and 2020/21, respectively. They have also been trophy holders since 2016/17. Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli presented Harshit and Nitish with their maiden Test caps.

Apart from Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj completing the four-man pace attack, India have also sprung in a surprise by selecting Washington as their lone spinner ahead of stalwarts like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.