Nitish Kumar Reddy sees India A games as important learning opportunity ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Wearing India's blue jersey for the first time ahead of the opening T20 series against Bangladesh earlier this month, Nitish Kumar Reddy felt a wave of happiness that prompted him to take a mirror selfie. Later, he found himself glued to that picture on his phone, basking in the joy of realizing the dream he had when he first started playing the game in his childhood – of playing for India. Reddy's extraordinary performance of scoring 303 runs in 11 innings and taking three wickets with the seam-up for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 earned him the Emerging Player of the Season award. This gave him quick entry into the national set-up through a call-up for five T20Is against Zimbabwe in July. But a hernia problem prevented him from joining the tour, delaying him from getting a chance to play for India.

The wait finally ended in India's first T20 match against Bangladesh in Gwalior, where Reddy made his international debut. “At that moment, I felt proud of myself for how far I have come, something I had dreamed of. Now, I was finally going to represent India, because I knew I was going to get a chance in the first match .

“I was very excited, and at the same time, nervous about representing India. But I always believed that whoever handles that pressure well will go on to play at the big level. So it somehow happened “It helped me manage that pressure and perform well in the series,” Reddy said in an exclusive conversation with IANS.

Reddy is currently in Mackay, Australia, where India A is preparing to compete in the first of two four-day matches against Australia A starting on Thursday. With selection in India's squad for the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Reddy is a contender to fulfill India's search for an efficient fast bowling all-rounder in Tests.

'To be honest, I was very excited to play in Australia with the India A team as it would give me a bit more experience of playing on Australian pitches and conditions before going into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“When I heard the news that I have been selected in the Indian Test cricket team, I was very happy, because it is everyone's dream to play white ball and even more so red ball cricket for India. For me, this dream It is now on the verge of becoming a reality, I just want to improve myself as much as I can and perform for the Indian team.”

With Australia being the preferred destination for fast bowlers, Reddy has taken note of the changes required to be successful in such conditions. “I can see some differences between the Indian and Australian pitches – the bounce here is a bit higher than our home pitches, which has to be adjusted accordingly, and that's what we are trying to do here.

“When I am practicing my bowling, I am enjoying the bouncy balls coming here and adjusting accordingly. It is quite good to hit a length of five-six meters in Australia, because in India you get good bowling. Length requires hitting balls of six metres.”

The Indian team management under coach Gautam Gambhir also recognizes Reddy's bowling skills and the rewards it brings. “They are expecting a few overs from me as well. They already know how I bat and they want me to bowl consistent lengths with the red ball. Not specifically they have mentioned my role, But they want me to use my bowling.” Skills too,” he said.

Reddy's rise to limelight began in red-ball cricket when he started with a triple century against Tamil Nadu in the 2017/18 Vijay Merchant Trophy, then followed it up with 190 against Karnataka and a mammoth 441 off 345 balls against Nagaland. Played. , He received the honor of being the top under-16 cricketer at the 2018 BCCI awards for scoring 1237 runs at an average of 176.41.

Moving from age-group cricket to representing Andhra in first-class cricket, Reddy, a right-handed batsman, became a lower-order batsman to focus on utilizing his seam-bowling abilities. Taking over the responsibility of bowling with the new ball proved successful for Andhra as he took 25 wickets, the most by a bowler from his state in the last season of Ranji Trophy.

Despite his batting average of 21.45 in first-class cricket, Reddy is confident of converting it with the bat thanks to his shadow batting routine. “I would say shadow practice is the one thing that changed everything for me. I still remember when I was in Under 14 and Under 16, I used to do a lot of shadow practice because my father used to scold me for doing that.

“Somehow I left it and then forgot about it midway. Now for the last two years I have started shadow practicing again and it has made a huge impact on my cricket. I always want to make sure that That I perform well.” Do shadow practice for at least 30-45 minutes a day, because that's the only thing I do mentally before going for the game.”

The effect of practicing in the shade and improving his ability to hit powerful shots while playing for SRH was evident in his 64 against Punjab Kings, helping SRH win by one run. His unbeaten inning of 76 runs against Rajasthan Royals helped the team win by two runs. However, the most powerful impact came through the breathtaking 74 he scored against Bangladesh in New Delhi on 9 October.

During the power-play in the game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, India lost captain Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. Reddy and Rinku Singh intended to rotate the strike and adjust to the situation. However, Reddy was wasting his time to strike, and the opportunity came when he hit a six off a free-hit by Mahmudullah.

Reddy's powerful hitting on the leg side helped him score 74 runs in just 34 balls, which ultimately helped India win the series from a challenging position. “I saw that moment coming when the spinner was coming to bowl at that time and I thought this was the over to do it. When I took that chance, Bangladesh lost.

“When that spinner (Rishad Hussain) came in, I remember he hit two sixes on the ground and they came back under pressure. For the first six overs, we were under pressure and that's when I really freed my arms at that time. So they were under pressure. That's where I saw the fear on their faces and did what I had to do.”

Reddy, no matter which format, does extensive research with the help of analysts to find out what is required of him in terms of batting and bowling for any given game. “For batting preparation, I just want to see what kind of bowling they do, whether they have googlies, off-breaks or leg-spin, what kind of slow bowling they do – either off-cutter or Back of arm.”

“I also look at what variations they have, so that when I go and play in the middle, it shouldn't be a surprise for me. From a bowling perspective, it's about planning what to bowl in different conditions. Like, if the off-side is a big boundary, I can bowl wide-yorkers or wide-slow ones to see which shots they are strong in and at what length I can bowl them. I can bowl.

The prospect of Reddy facing Pat Cummins and Travis Head in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy excites him, especially since he was previously associated with the SRH camp, with Cummins as his captain and Head as his partner.

“I want to experience what it's like playing against Pat and Travis compared to playing with them at SRH. Let's see how it goes and I hope everything goes as we plan.”

Apart from cricket, Reddy likes to roam the streets with his friends after dinner and watch films of Telugu film actor Mahesh Babu, of whom he is a big fan. He also loves playing PUBG with his friends, which he calls a 'stress buster'.

“It's been five-six years since I've been playing this game. Like whenever my performance is bad or not very good, I come to play PUBG and it's kind of satisfying and refreshing for me. “

While passionate cricket fans would wake up at 4:30 in the morning to watch India's Test matches in Australia, young Reddy would start his day at 5 in the morning and travel 20 km daily to practice at the Visakhapatnam stadium. Used to prepare.

Despite not being able to watch India's Test matches in Australia on TV, he was looking forward to watching them when he returned home. He remembers every Test India played in Australia as 'very good', especially the intense contests between the strong Australian team and the skilled Indian players.

Reddy will face intense all-round scrutiny as he will compete in overseas conditions for the first time through the India 'A' team against international players like Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris.

But Reddy's experience of performing in high-pressure situations in the IPL and prior taste of playing international cricket is expected to give him an advantage as he attempts to fulfill another childhood dream of his – a Test for India. To play cricket.