There is a reason why they have won the last two T20 World Cups, there is a reason why they have been able to tide over potentially crippling loss of personnel through injuries and still put out formidable, fighting fit units. India are nothing if not a champion outfit, their 20-over June misadventures in Ireland and England notwithstanding. One of the hallmarks of a champion outfit is the propensity to eke out match-turning performances from different quarters and not depend on just one or two individuals to carry the day.
The soft-spoken young man with a ready smile is currently back in business again, and hopefully this time, it won’t be another cameo appearance. India have numerous fallback options for almost every position when it comes to the T20 format, specifically. Especially from a batting standpoint, there is so much depth and quality and choices that it is inevitable that many who might have walked into any other side are not even on the fringes of consideration for selection. His middling to ordinary form overshadowed his leadership and man-management chops as preparations for the next World Cup began immediately after the trophy was lifted in Ahmedabad in March. India, though, haven’t always been blessed with an overflowing cup when it comes to this specific requirement. There have been all-rounders of various degrees of proficiency in the post-Kapil Dev era, with Irfan Pathan perhaps being the most successful of the lot. It was a given that Kapil was irreplaceable; the Haryana Hurricane was a generational genius and any quest to unearth a like-for-like substitute was always going to be an exercise in futility. As India meandered from one alternative to another, they stumbled upon Hardik Pandya, a natural athlete who could crank up the pace, who struck the ball a mile and who was an electric fielder. It wasn’t that the spirit wasn’t willing, but his body couldn’t take the load of Test cricket. India would have loved for Pandya to keep continuing to play the five-day game but instead were happy to settle for his services in the two white-ball versions, though even there, he has been compelled to miss increasingly more matches in the last couple of years as he sidles towards his mid-30s. This ongoing Afghanistan series marks another comeback from the infirmary for the young man from the port city of Visakhapatnam. In June, he picked up a quadriceps injury that kept him away from the twin tours of Ireland and England, and the subsequent three-match sojourn in Zimbabwe. Abhishek was the Player of the Match in the big win in the series-opener, showing that India boast match-winners aplenty at both ends of the spectrum.
Pandya slammed a century and snared a five-wicket in his brief Test career – 11 Tests in 13 months between July 2017 and August 2018 – but taking a cue from his complaining body, decided that the longer version was not his cup of tea. The quadriceps problem is the latest in an already long and burgeoning list of injuries – hernia (June 2024), side strain (January 2025), knee (July 2025), neck spasms (October 2025) and quadriceps (also October 2025). Around all this, in his desire to become the ‘best all-rounder’ (his words), Nitish embarked on a mission to ramp up his pace, ahead of IPL 2026. After watching Instagram videos on biomechanics and fast bowling, he got in touch with protagonist Steffan Jones, the Englishman who plied his fast-bowling wares on the county circuit for 20 years and played three years of professional rugby too. An unforgiving one-week crash course ahead of the tournament helped Nitish add a staggering 10 kilometres per hour to his bowling as he went from late 120s to 140 occasionally, but whether that has come at a cost remains to be seen. As if to reiterate the value he brings to the side, Nitish walked away with the Player of the Match award in the second T20I against Afghanistan on Tuesday for his three for 24 from three good overs. A wicket with the first delivery of each of his three overs did the trick as the Afghans failed to touch 160 for the second time in three nights, allowing India to breeze home on the back of the pyrotechnics of openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. Internationally, he has bowled a little over 125 overs (for 16 wickets) and it might appear a stretch to label him an all-rounder immediately, but while he may not be able to influence – yet – the course of a match with his bowling alone, one can state with confidence that he will be a force to reckon with with the ball too once he manages to keep himself free from injuries.
Because he is still reasonably inexperienced, with less than 1,000 overs under his belt in representative cricket, nitish’s inconsistencies, especially with the ball, can be easily explained away simply.
Why, India didn’t think twice before giving Suryakumar Yadav the heave-ho immediately after the Mumbaikar masterminded a successful defence of the World Cup, and that too on home soil – neither feat accomplished previously.