New Delhi: Mumbai’s young pace all-rounder Suryansh Shedge is reportedly in contention to earn his maiden ODI call-up for upcoming series against New Zealand.
India will play five T20Is and as many ODIs on their tour of New Zealand, followed by two Test matches.
As per a report in PTI, Shedge has emerged as a strong contender to earn his maiden ODI call-up for the New Zealand tour after his impressive performances in the recently concluded one-day series between India A and Australia A. Shedge was roped in as a replacement for star all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the India A squad.
Shedge, who made his T20I debut for India earlier this year, returned to action in the India A unofficial ODI series after recovering from a hamstring injury. He picked up four wickets in the first game and scored a match-winning 66 in the final one-day match.
Shedge is set to be in India’s ODI squad for the New Zealand tour due to lack of options. While Hardik’s fitness status remains unknown as he continues to recover from an injury, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s fitness record hasn’t been impressive either. Reddy is also India’s first-choice pace all-rounder in Tests.
Thus, he won’t be available to play all five one-day matches against New Zealand as he would need red-ball practice. Shedge has a strong chance of getting picked in the ODI squad as selectors might be looking at picking a bigger travelling party for the series.
“Shedge has a very high chance of making it to the ODI squad simply because Nitish Kumar Reddy will have an important role to play in the Test series as the fourth seamer and a floater in the lower order. Hence, Reddy won’t play all the ODIs as he has to prepare for the red-ball games,” a BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.
Suryansh Shedge’s career at a glance
Shedge has so far played 3 T20Is for India, scoring 8 runs and going wicketless. He has been on the rise in the domestic circuit and is being looked at as an alternative to Pandya and Reddy. Shedge has so far played 8 first-class matches in his career and has 439 runs to his name along with 1 wicket.
In List A, the young all-rounder has 337 runs and 16 wickets to his name in 18 matches. Shedge’s bowling has improved recently, which has encouraged the selectors to promote him for India in white-ball cricket. However, it remains to be seen if the youngster will get an opportunity in the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand.