Nitish Kumar Reddy sees India A games as vital learning opportunity before BGT

New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) Wearing the India blue jersey for the first time before the T20I series opener against Bangladesh earlier this month, Nitish Kumar Reddy felt a surge of happiness that prompted him to take a mirror selfie.

Later on, he found himself glued to that picture on his phone, savouring the happiness of realising a dream he had nurtured since he first started playing the sport as a child – to play for India.

Reddy’s exceptional performance of making 303 runs in 11 innings and taking three wickets with his seam-up for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 earned him the Emerging Player of the Season award. It led to his quick entry to the national set-up via a call-up for the five T20Is against Zimbabwe in July. But a hernia issue prevented him from joining the tour, delaying his chance to play for India.

The wait finally culminated in the lead-up to India’s first T20I against Bangladesh in Gwalior, where Reddy made his international debut. "That moment, I felt prouder of myself on how far I had come, something I had dreamt of. Now, I was finally about to represent India, as I knew I was going to get a chance in the first match.

"I was so excited, and at the same time, that nervousness was also there of representing India. But I always used to believe that whoever handles that pressure well, they are the ones going to sustain playing at a bigger level. So it somehow helped me to manage that pressure and did well in the series," said Reddy 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 beginning on Thursday. With his selection in India’s squad for the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Reddy is a contender to fulfill India’s quest for a proficient fast-bowling all-rounder in Tests.

'To be honest, I was so excited to play in Australia with India A squad because I would get a little more experience of playing on the Australian pitches and conditions before going into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"When I heard the news that I had been selected in the Indian Test cricket team, I was very happy, as it’s everyone’s dream to play for India in white-ball and more so, in red-ball cricket. For me, that dream is now on the verge of becoming a reality. I just want to improve myself as much as I can and deliver through performances for the Indian team," he added.

Being in Australia, a favoured location for fast bowlers, Reddy has taken notes of modifications required to succeed in such conditions. "I can notice some difference between Indian and Australian pitches - the bounce over here is a bit higher than ones we have back home, which has to be adjusted accordingly, and that’s what we are exactly trying to do here.

"When I am practising my bowling, I am just enjoying the bounce balls getting here and adjusting accordingly. Hitting that five-six metre length is quite good in Australia, as back in India you need to hit that six-metre length for good length balls."

The Indian team management, led by coach Gautam Gambhir, also recognizes Reddy’s bowling skills and the reward it can bring. "They are expecting some overs from me as well. They already know how I bat and have wanted me to bowl consistent lengths with the red-ball. Specifically they didn’t mention my role, but they have wanted for me to utilize my bowling skills as well," he stated.

Reddy’s entry into the limelight began in red-ball cricket when he opened the 2017/18 Vijay Merchant Trophy with a triple-century against Tamil Nadu, then hit 190 against Karnataka, and went on to score a huge 441 runs off 345 balls against Nagaland. He received the honor of being the top U-16 cricketer at the 2018 BCCI awards for scoring 1237 runs with an average of 176.41.

While moving from age-group cricket to representing Andhra in first-class cricket, Reddy, a right-handed batsman, shifted to being a lower-order batter to focus on making use of his seam-bowling abilities. Assuming the new-ball bowling duties for Andhra proved to be successful as he secured 25 wickets, the most by a bowler from his state in the last season of the Ranji Trophy.

Despite his batting average of 21.45 in first-class cricket, Reddy is confident of turning it around 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 at U14 and U16, I used to do shadow practicing a lot because my father used to scold me for doing this thing.

"Somehow I left that and then forgot about it in middle. Now from the past two years, I started doing the shadow practice again, and that has made a lot of impact on my cricket. I always want to make sure that I do good shadow practice for at least 30-45 minutes in the day, as that’s the only thing I do mentally before going for a game.”

The impact of practicing in the shadows and improving his ability to hit powerful shots while playing for SRH was clear in his 64 runs against Punjab Kings, which helped SRH win by a single run. His undefeated 76 runs against Rajasthan Royals led the team to a two-run victory. The most powerful impact, though, came via a breathtaking 74 scored against Bangladesh in New Delhi on October 9.

During the power-play at the Arun Jaitley Stadium game, India lost captain Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, and Sanju Samson. Reddy and Rinku Singh intended to rotate strike and adjust to the situation. However, Reddy was biding his time to strike, and the opportunity arose when he hit a six off a free-hit due to a no-ball from Mahmudullah.

Reddy’s powerful hitting on the leg-side helped him score 74 runs in just 34 balls, ultimately securing India’s series-winning triumph from a challenging position. "I saw that moment came when the spinner was coming to bowl at that time and I felt this is the over to do it. When I took that chance, the Bangladesh team went down.

"When that spinner came (Rishad Hossain), I remember hitting two sixes down the ground and they were back under pressure. For the first six overs, we were in pressure and when I actually freed my arms at that time they were sent under pressure. That’s where I saw the fear in their faces and did what I had to do."

Reddy thoroughly researches what is required of him in terms of batting and bowling for any game, with help from analysts, regardless of the format. “For batting preparation, I just want to see how they bowl, like do they have googly, off-break or leg-spin, the kind of slower ones they bowl - either off-cutter or back of the arm.”

"I also see what variation is there in them, so that when I go and play in the middle, it should not be surprising for me. From a bowling perspective, it’s all about planning what to bowl in various situation. Like, if off-side is a bigger boundary, I can bowl wide-yorkers or wide-slow ones. I also watch batters’ videos for seeing what shots they are strong in and what lengths I can bowl to curb them."

The possibility of Reddy facing Pat Cummins and Travis Head in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy excites him, especially since they were previously associated at the SRH camp, with Cummins as his captain and Head as his teammate.

"I want to experience how it is like playing against them, as compared to playing with Pat and Travis at SRH. Let’s see how it goes and I hope everything goes as per how we plan accordingly."

Outside of cricket, Reddy likes going for a walk with his team-mates in streets after dinner and watching movies of Telugu film actor Mahesh Babu, of who he is a big fan. He also enjoys playing a lot of PUBG with his friends, which he calls as a ‘stress buster’.

"It’s been five-six years of playing this game. Like whenever I had a bad or not so happy performances, I kind of come to play PUBG and that’s kind of satisfying and refreshing for me."

While passionate cricket fans would wake up at 4:30 am to watch India’s Tests in Australia, a young Reddy would start his day at 5 am, preparing to travel 20 km daily to practice at the Visakhapatnam stadium.

Despite not being able to watch India’s Tests in Australia on TV, he looked forward to catching up on them once he was back home. He fondly remembers every Test India played in Australia as ‘so good’, especially the intense matchups between the formidable Australian team and the skillful Indian players.

Reddy will face intense all-round scrutiny as he competes in foreign conditions for the first time through the India ‘A’ side, against the likes of international players like Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris.

But Reddy’s experience of performing in high-pressure situations in the IPL and a prior taste of playing international cricket are expected to give him an advantage as he strives to fulfill another childhood dream - of playing Test cricket for India.