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DHARAMSHALA: The Indian team management has pinned its hopes on Nitish Kumar Reddy ’s evolution as a seam-bowling allrounder as they look for a stable alternative for the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. On Saturday, amid Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s assault on the Indian attack, when captain Shubman Gill threw Reddy the ball, he responded with four impressive overs for 2/31 to restrict the visitor’s innings.Reddy understands that when Hardik comes back, it will be difficult for him to hold on to his place in the XI. To make most of the opportunities that could arise, he has been working hard to sharpen his bowling skills over the last one year, even having worked with UK-based bowling coach Stefan Jones.“I figured that I’m a front-on bowler and started working on the stride lengths as I wanted to go much quicker on the run-up. It changed my bowling action a little bit. It’s coming good now and there are some more improvements which I’ll hopefully do in the coming days,” Reddy said.Reddy was understandably reluctant to divulge details of working with Jones. “It’s just been seven days since we worked together. We have discussed specifics and worked on them and identified some points where I need to change a little bit in my specific bowling. We’re working on it, basically it’s what we want to achieve in the coming days,” he said.
