Bhubaneswar: This twenty-one year old Vizag lad tattooed cricketer has announced his arrival on to the Indian Cricket stage in Pushparaj style!
With a bull’s eye tattoo on the left hand, the right hander batsman made a clean hit of the mighty Aussie attack to record his first 50, and the all-rounder celebrated his first milestone after donning the test cap in Pushparaj style. The batter didn’t look back like Pushparaj. He went on to score his maiden test century in style – at a time when India needed the runs to save the honour by not playing the follow on.
And India rejoiced at saving the follow on – the Main Jhukega Nahi moment.
WHY NITISH DON’S PUSHPARAJ SIGNATURE STYLE?
Like in the film Pushpa The Rise and The Rule, where Pushparaj has to wade his way from humble origins to rule the red sandalwood syndicate, and having a big clout over the political system, Nitish Kumar Reddy has risen from humble roots to shine at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) braving all odds. Many big former cricketers have ruled him out as neither a genuine batter nor a genuine bowler. And they had lamented over his fast tracking to don the test cap for India.
More so, just before the start of play at MCG, a former cricketer and chief selector of Indian cricket team had made a very devastating comment on Nitish Kumar Reddy.
When India benched their number 3, Shubman Gill following poor performances in Adelaide's pink ball Test and the Gabba Test, former cricketer MSK Prasad, who was the chief selector for the Indian team between 2016 and 2020, and who also belongs to Nitish Kumar Reddy’s native state, who was the commentary box had said,
"I think the Indian team were more focused and concerned about their batting than anything else. Nitish Reddy has created confusion for the Indian team," he added.
"He [Reddy] is neither a complete bowler nor a complete batter you can trust. This has created a lot of confusion. This is one of the reasons they had to drop Shubman Gill and bring in Washington Sundar, to strengthen batting lower down the order. You can't leave out someone like Shubman Gill."
Not MSKP alone, another former Indian fast bowler had made a comment on Nitish’s capability.
Commenting on Nitish on X, he wrote… (see the image).
NITISH SHOW DOWN UNDER
The all-rounder from Andhra Pradesh has not shown a failure streak when he made a debut down under donning the test cap for India. He made test debut in Perth – the test that India won.
In his first innings, he scored 41 runs in 59 balls. And in the second innings, the Vizag batter scored 38 not out.
At Adelaide, the match where Indians were bundled out at low scores and the Kangaroos went on to record a thumping win, the new comer hit the highest score of 42 in the first and second innings.
In Brisbane Test, Nitish Reddy had a poor outing as he could put a score of 16 on the scoreboard. And in the second innings, he didn’t come to bat.
At Melbourne Cricket Ground, he hit his maiden century and scored 105 vital runs that saved India from playing the follow on after Australia in first innings posted a total of 474.
As a bowler, he in the last 4-matches down under bowled 33 overs till the MCG test, and had taken 3 wickets conceding 144 runs with an economical rate of 4.33 runs. The economy rate of Nitish Reddy in Bowling does not speak of any revelation of sort, unlike his batting.
Despite not a bad show on the batting front, many former and senior players had a big doubt over his capability. But the MCG rise has the stamp of Pushparaj streaks in Nitis Kumar Reddy's life.
GAMBHIR CONFIDENCE
During a chat with 7Cricket, Nitish Kumar Reddy has said the following after pairing with Rishabh Pant, launched an onslaught gainst the Aussie pace attack hit six boundaries and the only six.
"He (Gambhir) mentioned when you get any bouncers or something like those sharp cells, you just take them on to your shoulders and just feel that your taking a bullet for your country."
It seems the pep talk by coach Gautam Gambhir played a role in the new debutant Nitish standing up to the onslaught of Aussie pace on their home pitch.
NITISH REDDY’S HUMBLE ROOTS
Nitish Reddy’s ‘The Rise’ as a cricketer has a lot of similarities with Pushpa The Rise, albeit on different grounds.
Nitish has to bear with a lot of monetary hardship during his budding career. The family still lives at a rented house on the outskirts of Vishakapatnam. And the story goes as below.
For the sake of furthering Nitish’s cricketing dream, his father K. Mutyala Reddy sacrificed his job at Hindustan Zinc Limited, when he was transferred to a new city. The father believed that moving on to another new city will jeopardize his son Nitish’s cricketing exploits.
The calling it quit from a secure job brought hardship to the family in latter period. But the dotting father fully dotted spot on in living the dreams of making Nitish a good cricketer. And his mother cut down on family expenses to nourish their cricketing dream.
Though, when Nitish himself was not gun sure on his cricketing abilities, his father saw in him the talent, and that need to be nurtured.
His father wished away all the negative inputs Nitish’s coaches weighed in with. Many coaches had advised Mutyala about forgetting cricket and focussing on Nitish’s study. He never gets worked up at them; rather put all his efforts in bringing out the best from Nitish Kumar.
However, the exploits of Nitish Kumar started showing off when his willow started scoring big in U-14 tournaments.
NITISH THE RISE
Father Mutyala’s sacrifice, sincerity and devotion pay off. Nitish Kumar Reddy hit the headlines in 2017-18 Vijay Merchant Trophy – where he scored a triple-century for Andhra,
- followed by a 345-ball 441 against Nagaland.
- His 1237 runs there at an average of 176.41 still remains the record highest tally in the tournament's history, and earned him the BCCI's award for best U-16 cricketer that season.
- his all-round skills were noticed by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.
- Before the 2023 IPL season, he was bought by SRH for INR 20 lakhs, but in his debut season, bowled five wicketless overs across two games while not getting to bat.
- 2024 smiled on Nitish.
- In IPL 2024, his exploits earned Sun Risers Hyderbad crucial victories in their run to the playoffs.
- His 64 against Punjab Kings helped SRH win by one run.
- His unbeaten 76 against Rajasthan Royals ensured a two-run win for the SRH.
- And the year gave him his first international debut earlier in Bangladesh series.
- The year gave him the chance to don the first test cap down under.
- Disproving all, he justified his selection to playing 11, especially at the MCG.
AFTER THE RISE..
MSK Prasad, who lamented on for choosing Nitish Reddy for Melbourne test benching Subham Gill, ahas told to Star sports the following after Nitish’s top show.
“We groomed him systematically. He scored 1200 runs in a season and 400 runs one innings in the U-16 cricket. This age group is the entry point in Indian domestic cricket. He was a batter, who could bowl when he started playing cricket.
“Nitish then worked on his bowling and he now contributes as an all-rounder. He has been magnificent for India against Australia and will improve further.
