Ashish Nehra picks Navdeep Saini as the third pacer for India in the Sydney Test

India will be up against Australia in the third Test of the four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy, starting from January 7 at Sydney Cricket Ground. In the third Test, India is expected to make a forced change in their pace attack as the seamer Umesh Yadav suffered an injury during the second Test and has been ruled out of the series.

India were already without the services of their two pace mainstays Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Mohammed Siraj was already included in the second Test as a replacement for Shami, thus India is left with three pace options namely Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and T Natarajan in place of Yadav to join Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah in the Playing XI.

Speaking about the same, India’s veteran seamer Ashish Nehra reckoned that Navdeep Saini should easily be the first choice for the selectors as he was selected for the Test series from the start while Thakur and Natarajan were later named in the Test series as replacements.

“If you look at squad composition, Saini was first choice and Shardul and Natarajan both came in as replacements for Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. So if Saini was ahead of them during initial Test squad selection, I don’t see any reason why he would slip down in the pecking order. You selected him first, so obviously you believed he was better than the other two, isn’t it,” Ashish Nehra said as quoted by NDTV.

Navdeep’s biggest assets are bounce and extra pace: Ashish Nehra

Further in the interaction, Nehra laid stress on Navdeep’s bowling technique which can be more effective as compared to that of Natarajan and Shardul Thakur in the longest format of the game. The veteran believes that Saini has that extra pace and bounce that can rattle the opposition batsmen and can help India in picking up regular wickets.

“Navdeep’s biggest assets are bounce and extra pace. This is a Test match. How does Natarajan normally gets his wickets? When people are trying to hit him. Also, you haven’t tested Natarajan by playing him for India A like you did with Mohammed Siraj, who has risen through the ranks.

“Similarly, Navdeep has also come up the ranks having been on multiple red ball tours of India A. In Test matches, batsmen normally don’t get out. You have to get them out. That’s the difference.” Ashish Nehra concluded.