Nitish Kumar Reddy, a stunning strokemaker in progress
He has come in to bat in tough situations and played some eye-catching shots. Now he needs to build on it.
Alagappan Muthu10-Dec-20241:01
Manjrekar: Reddy is an exceptional batting talent
Fifteen yards out from the boundary line in Canberra, Dhruv Jurel had rocked onto his back foot, opening up his hips to get power into the shot. He found it and the ball was hurtling away in front of square… exactly where Nitish Kumar Reddy was taking his throwdowns.Someone cried out in warning. They needn’t have. Reddy shifted seamlessly from checking what he could do better with India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate to whack this ball away too. He has got himself a nice little highlight reel in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy.It began in Perth when he was alert to the possibility of some quick runs. Nathan Lyon had come on and after sussing up that there was no real turn on offer, in addition to knowing that facing the fast bowlers had been really hard work, Reddy reeled off three fours in eight balls. One went down the ground, the next over cover, hit inside out, and the last was a reverse sweep. Shots seem to be his thing.Related
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According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, Travis Head, that phenom who has left Ricky Ponting in awe of how hard he hits the ball, is on top of the list for most runs made in this series through aggressive shots, or attempts made to find the boundary: 156 in 54 balls. Picking the ball early and committing to shots fully are hallmarks of Head’s batting and it helps that he has such great hands too. Reddy shares that strength. He is No. 2 on the list: 114 in 36 balls.In the second Test, when Mitchell Starc presented him with just the slightest bit of width – the length was still fine – there was an opportunity to free the arms and the young India allrounder took it with glee. The host broadcast had calculated that ball had come to him at 116kph (after pitching) and was sent away at 116kph too. Reddy hit Scott Boland for a reverse swept six as well and since that shot is a little more unorthodox it tends to stick out. But the square boundaries are shorter at the Adelaide Oval. To hit Starc – who is deadly almost every time he pitches the ball up – over cover – so no slogging – and have enough on it to go sailing into the crowd is a pretty special effort. His bat speed on that lofted drive was recorded to be 60kph. Whirlwind hands.”[Reddy] has done everything a young player could do in a very short space of time and we think he has a very high ceiling,” ten Doeschate said on Friday.At the time he was picked to play in Australia, he had played only 21 first-class matches, and his better discipline, batting, had fetched him one century and two fifties. Obviously, as an allrounder he plays down the order so he doesn’t always have the chance to score big runs but those numbers are still not the break-the-door-down type that the selectors often ask for. Reddy struggled in the early part of the tour, playing for India A. In four innings, he made 0, 17, 16 and 38 and picked up only one wicket.Nitish Kumar Reddy made 42 runs in each innings in Adelaide•Getty ImagesPlayers with raw talent like Reddy need this kind of exposure. Back when he was making his way up the Andhra age-group system, he was scoring double and triple-centuries for fun. So when he levelled up and had a poor season, he thought it was nothing. Then he had another blip and that’s when he realised where he stood.India have taken a big punt on him. He wasn’t dominating the Ranji Trophy. He only began playing professional cricket four years ago. His rise is a little bit out of nowhere, helped by his exploits in the IPL, and a little bit out of necessity. India need a seam-bowling allrounder. There is another big Test tour of England coming up next year. Someone like Shardul Thakur has done well in this role in the past but at 33 he might not be a good fit for the future. Reddy could. He has top-scored for India in three out of four innings in Australia. But given those scores were 41, 42 and 42, there is clear understanding that he is very much a work in progress.Take his singular strength once again, the one with which he has caught the eye and come up through the ranks – his attacking shots. When Head has played them this series, he averages 156, which means he has got out to them only once, which means he is choosing his moments to be aggressive quite carefully. Reddy’s average when playing attacking shots is 38. They have got him out in three of his four innings.”From the prep week in Perth, where he looked like he still needed to figure things out,” ten Doeschate said, “the way it worked in Perth and the game plans he implemented in Perth to get crucial runs there, I think to get us to 150 in that first game was amazing.”Still a little bit of work to do, he’s very raw. But for a young kid, a 21-year-old to come out like that and play three innings and the quality he has, it is super exciting.”In places like Australia, where the new ball poses immense threat, there is every chance a visiting team finds itself at 100 for 5 over and over. Runs thereon from people down the order can be the difference between winning and losing, and runs are possible from there because the ball goes soft and does considerably less. In that regard, Reddy, at No. 7, is a crucial piece of India’s puzzle and considering he is the team’s second highest run-scorer, he is coping pretty well. He had grown up watching the stars in this team. Now he is holding his own with them.