Fast-bowling all-rounders are rare in cricket. India haven’t had many quality batters who can also bowl pace of late, with Hardik Pandya arguably being the finest option at present. But, Hardik’s India career is limited to only white-ball cricket at present. Hence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) picked Nitish Kumar Reddy for the forthcoming Australia tour. Nitish has already impressed many with his batting in the T20I series against Bangladesh. As his stocks rise in international cricket, Reddy revealed a big tip from coach Gautam Gambhir that helped him excel.
In a chat with the Hindustan Times, Reddy revealed the sort of conversations he had with Gambhir and others in the team management in the Bangladesh series.
“At the start, it was nothing. They were telling me to play in an aggressive way. The kind of approach I showed in IPL, they were telling me to go with the same approach, same mindset, everything. Just play according to the situation. I still remember during the drinks break when Gautam Sir came in and I played reverse sweep it needed a DRS. When it was given not out as it was the umpire’s call, he came in the centre and he told me, Nitish, you have good power. You can clear the boundary line easily. You have no need to play reverse sweep on these kind of wickets because the ball is keeping low,” Reddy said.
Reddy hit a 74-run knock against Bangladesh in the second T20I, making waves in the Indian cricketing spectrum. Reddy is thankful for the instructions given to him by Gambhir during this phase of his career.
“He told me to back my power. So I just backed my power and rest of the things went very well. The over bowled by the spinner turned out very well for me at that time,” Reddy said.
Gambhir also gave some valuable tips to Reddy over bowling. The pacer bowls between 130-135 kmph on an average, though he has the ability to bowl over 140 kmph too. But, it’s consistency over pace in the priority list for Reddy.
“To be honest, I am trying to be more consistent in red ball. I feel like bowling 130-135 is good pace. Rather than going 140-145, trying to bowl more pace, I just don’t want to lose my consistency. So I am trying to have more consistency at this pace. In that process, if my pace got increased, that’s well and good. But my first priority will be bowling the consistency areas, hitting the top of the off stump. That’s what Gautam sir also kept on mentioning to me, so I wanted to focus on that,” he asserted.