Boxing Day Test: Enter Nitish Reddy, a Bahubali in the making for India

When Nitish Kumar Reddy, a young one-season wonder in IPL 2024 made the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as a seaming allrounder, it raised enough eyebrows. It was deemed to be more of a calculated gamble as Hardik Pandya is not available to play red ball cricket and Shardul Thakur now out of favour – but chances were he would be the proverbial passenger.

 After four demanding Tests and being the first No.8 batter to hit a Test century at the hallowed MCG, the 21-year-old from Visakhapatnam has truly emerged as India’s find in a rollercoaster of a series. The visitors are far from being out of the woods in the Boxing Day Test but if they manage to save this one, the pair of Nitish and Washington Sundar would deserve a huge round of applause for their defiant and unbeaten 127-run partnership.

 Come to think about it, Nitish was almost on the verge of being dropped for the ongoing Test to make room for the second spinner in Sundar – with the thinking that Melbourne could be a bit more conducive to spin and the Andhra allrounder had not been able to contribute much with the ball. Ironically, India found a pair of unlikely heroes in the duo and Nitish looked an extremely viable option with his skillsets for the future – especially during tours of SENA countries.

 ‘’The way he was batting, Nitish definitely deserved a hundred,’’ Sundar said later. What about his celebrations, full of trademark swagger from Telegu superhit movies Pushpa and then the mythical character Bahubali ? ‘’He killed it on the ground. Surely, we will get a lot more celebrations like him from him,’’ the off-spinner replied with a smile.

The story of Nitish, who comes from a state which has produced Test cricketers only few and far between (Hanuma Vihari, who played a useful role in previous tour of Down Under and MSK Prasad, former chairman of selectors), is an endorsement of how India have been able to draw it’s talent bank from the hinterland in recent years. It’s also a father-son story like so many others as his father Mutayala Reddy had once given up his job with a public sector company in 2016 to give his son more time for his cricketing ambitions.

 Speaking to the broadcasters, Nitish said later: “To be honest, I was not serious when I was young. My father left his job for me and there has been a lot of sacrifice behind my story. One day, I saw him crying because of financial problems we were facing and I was like this is not how you can be that my father made the sacrifices and you play cricket just for fun. At that time, I became serious and I got the growth, I worked hard and it paid off.’’

 “As a son from a middle class family, I am so proud that my father is happy now. I gave my first jersey to him and saw happiness in his face and I feel very proud,’’ he added. Fortunately, Mutayala was at the stands on Saturday when Nitish launched into a lofted on drive to go past the three figure mark, sending the crowd in raptures.

Truth be told, Nitish was blessed to be at the right place at the right time. Head coach Gautam Gambhir chose to invest in a young Nitish with the dual target of filling in the fourth seamer’s role and be a competent batter in the lower order. He betrayed a fine temperament from the world go to survive on the wickets which looked livelier that India’s previous visit in 2020-21 – which resulted in the following sequence of scores: 41,38, 42,42 and 16.

 Coming in at number eight, he had to mostly bat with tailenders and often launched into the attacking mode – though the time he spent with KL Rahul for a patient 16 at the Gabba showed he could hold up one end too if needed. Nitish did so and more at the MCG, making a case for himself in the process to be promoted ahead of number eight.

‘’Everyone wants to be a hero in their cinema but when it comes to Nitish’s story it is Mutyala who is the hero,’’ Nitish’s childhood coach Kumar Swamy said in an interview. ‘’It is his father’s hard work which fuels Nitish to achieve something in life. He witnessed everything his father had undergone. Especially, there was a lot of criticism even from his close family members about him not having a job and wasting his time, but the father never gave up.’’

 Well, the journey has just begun for Nitish Kumar Reddy…