Nitish Kumar Reddy has been the find of the Australian tour for India, and the batting all-rounder established that as a fact with his maiden international century in the Melbourne Test when India were almost down and out for the count.
Looking at the 21-year-old Reddy’s consistent show with the bat throughout the series, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar reckons he is better in batting compared to his closest rival all-rounder in the country, Hardik Pandya.
Reddy’s 127-run stand for the eighth wicket with Washington Sundar in India’s first innings kept the visitors alive in the match. It helped India reach 369 in response to Australia’s 474.
Sundar contributed 50 and Reddy scored a well-deserved 114.
Writing in a column for Sportstar, Gavaskar credited the Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee for spotting the red-ball talent in Reddy and blooding him into Test cricket.
“The Melbourne Test brought to the fore one of the brightest young stars in Indian cricket, Nitish Kumar Reddy. He came to the attention of the Indian cricket fans with his performances for the (Sunrisers) Hyderabad franchise in the IPL, and while he had not done much at the first-class level, it’s a credit to Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors to have seen enough to pitchfork him into the Test arena,” the batting legend wrote.
Gavaskar is particularly impressed with Reddy’s cricketing brain and ability to read the match situation and play accordingly despite not having much first-class experience.
He had played 27 first-class matches for Andhra Pradesh before making his Test debut at Perth in this Border Gavaskar Trophy series.
Reddy made his international debut in a T20I against Bangladesh earlier this year after a good show in the IPL season before that.
“In his debut Test match in Perth itself, it became evident that here’s a cricketer who could read situations and play accordingly. With every subsequent Test match, that impression of a good ‘cricketing head’ on his shoulders began to get stronger and stronger,” Gavaskar mentioned in the column.
“And in Melbourne, when India were looking down the barrel, he came through the fire with an outstanding century that has cemented his place in the team for a long time to come.”
While Gavaskar admitted that Reddy needs to work on his seam-up bowling more, he put him ahead of Hardik in the batting department.
In the ongoing BGT, Reddy is India’s second-best scorer after four Tests. His 294 runs in seven innings are only behind Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 359 in 8 innings.
“Ever since the unavailability of Hardik Pandya for Test cricket, India has been looking for an all-rounder who can bowl medium pace and bat as well. Reddy’s bowling is still a work in progress, but as a batter, he is definitely better than Pandya was around the same time,” Gavaskar added.
