Nitish Reddy Rejoins Squad for South Africa ‘A’ ODI Matches

On Wednesday, the BCCI announced that India’s seam-bowling all-rounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy, has been released from the Test squad to participate in the One Day series against South Africa A, starting Thursday in Rajkot.

India’s assistant coach, Ryan ten Doeschate, confirmed that Dhruv Jurel, who has been exhibiting excellent form, could replace Nitish in the playing XI as a specialist batter. Regular wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has also returned after recovering from a foot injury sustained during the England series, and both Pant and Jurel will feature in the opening Test lineup.

Earlier, during net practice, Nitish was seen bowling alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj at full capacity. The seam-bowling all-rounder had a modest performance in the West Indies series, where India won 2-0. He bowled four overs in the opening Test without taking a wicket and scored 43 runs in one innings. In the subsequent ODI series in Australia, he notched up scores of 19 not out and 8 in two games.

The South Africa A team, having drawn the two-match unofficial ‘A’ Test series 1-1 in Bengaluru, is set to play a three-match One Day series in Rajkot starting Thursday, with the following matches scheduled for Sunday and Wednesday. With Nitish not featuring in the Test series against South Africa, he will gain valuable match experience in preparation for the India–South Africa ODI series, which begins with the Ranchi one-dayer on November 30.

India’s updated squad for the first Test:

• Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK) (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep.

India A’s updated squad for the one-day series:

• Tilak Varma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Vipraj Nigam, Manav Suthar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Published on November 12, 2025.