Hardik Pandya remains a rare gem in world cricket, a pace-bowling all-rounder who brings perfect balance to the Indian side. His ability to deliver with both bat and ball makes him an invaluable asset and replacing a player of his caliber is never easy. Over the years, Pandya has proven himself as a genuine match-winner, someone who can turn games single-handedly. However, his journey has also been shadowed by frequent injuries, making his absence a major setback for Team India. Thus, during such times as the India vs Australia 1st ODI, the management was left with no option but to experiment with someone else. Currently, nobody's better than Nitish Kumar Reddy to replace Hardik. Ever since he burst onto the cricket scene in 2024, the Andhra all-rounder keeps enthralling everyone. He was well-deservedly given his ODI debut cap by Rohit Sharma, becoming the first Andhra player to represent India in all three formats. But Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill didn't have the same confidence in him as they do in Hardik. In the rain-affected match, Nitish was dispatched to bat at number eight. Also Read | Zimbabwe Announced Squad for One-off Test Match Against Afghanistan, Craig Ervine Returns This was after he had scored a Test century in Australia less than 12 months earlier. But Gambhir and Gill pushed Axar Patel and Washington Sundar in front of him. He went out to bat in the 24th over, with only 21 balls remaining in the innings. Nitish wasn't bothered, though. He played some singles as wickets fell around him, KL Rahul and Harshit Rana. Nitish was 6 (5) when the final over started. With one wicket remaining, he chose to face the ball throughout the over and did not accept singles. Nitish trusted himself, and it worked in his favor as he clobbered Matt Kuhnemann for two sixes from the over and assisted India to reach 136/9 in 26 overs. His 11-ball 19 was sufficient to reveal what talent he has. But until his bowling improves, one cannot call him a real replacement for Hardik. But his batting is thereabouts or even better, perhaps. One can see why Gambhir and Gill have selected him, but maybe a bit of greater faith in him could do them and Team India a lot of good.