Nitish Kumar three-for steers India to victory in second T20I of Afghanistan series
Nitish Kumar was named Player of the Match after taking 3 for 24 in India’s second T20I against Afghanistan on Tuesday in the ongoing Afghanistan series, claiming a wicket with the first ball of each of his three overs.
India’s squad depth in T20 cricket — part of the reason they have won the last two T20 World Cups — allows them to replace even high-profile figures; the team released Suryakumar Yadav immediately after he led a successful title defence in Ahmedabad in March despite the batter having been ranked the No. 1 T20I player for a long period and experiencing a loss of form over the past 15 months in charge.
Several cricketing nations possess reliable fast-bowling all-rounders, but India’s supply of that specific type has been limited since Kapil Dev’s era; post-Kapil names have varied in impact, with Irfan Pathan among the more successful, and Hardik Pandya emerging later as a genuine multi-format talent who scored a Test century and took a five-wicket haul during a brief 11-Test run between July 2017 and August 2018.
Nitish, 23, has featured in 22 international matches across formats — 10 Tests, six ODIs and six T20Is — but his availability has repeatedly been affected by injury. In June he sustained a quadriceps problem that ruled him out of the twin tours of Ireland and England and the subsequent three-match tour of Zimbabwe; his medical record also lists hernia (June 2024), side strain (January 2025), knee (July 2025), neck spasms (October 2025) and quadriceps (also October 2025).
Pursuing what he called the 'best all-rounder' tag, Nitish worked on his pace ahead of IPL 2026, consulting Steffan Jones — the English coach who spent 20 years on the county circuit and three years in professional rugby — and added around 10 kilometres per hour to his bowling in a one-week crash course, moving from the late 120s to touching 140 occasionally. His career has been punctuated by high points and forced absences: he made a breakthrough hundred on Boxing Day at the MCG in December 2024 but has played only six Tests since, and after taking two quick wickets in the third Test at Lord’s he missed the rest of that England series with a knee injury.
On Tuesday Nitish’s three-for from three overs contributed to Afghanistan failing to reach 160 for the second time in three nights, and India chased down the total with impetus provided by openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma; Abhishek had been Player of the Match in the series opener. Nitish has bowled a little over 125 international overs for 16 wickets and under 1,000 overs in representative cricket overall, numbers that underline his relative inexperience even as selectors consider his dual skills valuable.
His short-term objectives are to remain injury-free for the next two and a half months, increase his bowling workload and secure selection for the two Tests in New Zealand that begin with the first Test at Wellington’s Basin Reserve on November 19. He has been withdrawn from the Asian Games, where India start their gold-medal defence in a quarterfinal on September 28, and is scheduled instead for three ODIs followed by five T20Is at home against West Indies, then an equal number of T20Is in New Zealand that will lead into five further ODIs before the Test series; if available at No. 8, he would provide batting depth and an extra pace option that would allow Shubman Gill to play with three frontline quicks and still have five bowling choices including Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin in pursuit of 20 wickets and 12 World Test Championship points.
India have had several regular absentees through injury — Jasprit Bumrah, Pandya (who hasn’t represented the country since March), Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Nitish among them — and Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir will have to balance immediate results with ensuring players are match-ready. Nitish is due to feature in Thursday’s final T20I in New Delhi, and his fitness and form over the next 75 days will determine his availability for the New Zealand Tests and the wider plans outlined for the white-ball schedule.