The young Indian all-rounder Nitish Reddy recently revealed how his father’s financial condition at the early stage of his career motivated him the most to take the game seriously. His comments came ahead of the second day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Nitish Reddy had a fabulous start in the series with a 41-run knock in the first innings to shoulder the side to 150 when they were struggling badly with the bat. The right-handed batter followed it up with a quickfire unbeaten 38-run knock in 27 balls with the help of three boundaries and a couple of sixes.
The 21-year-old hails from a humble family in Andhra and experienced many economic problems while growing up. He revealed how he wasn’t keen enough to take the game before he found drops of water in his father’s eye. The veteran sacrificed his job to make his son a future cricketer.
“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.” Nitish Reddy expressed this during his recent interaction on the BCCI TV.
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“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.” The youngster cracked.
Nitish Reddy reveals the advice of KL Rahul on Test debut
The youngster was first spotted by the former selector of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, MSK Pradesh, who offered him a chance to train at the Andhra Cricket facility. Soon, the all-rounder grabbed the spotlight with an incredible knock of 441 runs in 345 balls against Mizoram in the 2016-17 Vijay Merchant Trophy.
“Everyone said, ‘Mutyala Reddy, you made your son go this far‘. As a son of a middle-class family, I am so proud that my father is so happy now, and I gave my first jersey to him, where I saw happiness on his face and felt immensely proud.” Nitish Reddy highlighted.
The Visakhapatnam-born enjoyed a great season for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the previous edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he smacked 303 runs at an average of 33.66 and a strike rate of over 140 with the help of two half-centuries.
Making his T20I debut against Bangladesh, the aggressive batter drilled 90 runs across three innings at a strike rate of 180. He touched on taking the advice of senior batter KL Rahul, in the Indian dressing room.
“I was a bit nervous at first about how I would interact with players, who I had seen on TV while growing up. If I face any problem regarding anything, I just want to go and talk to KL bhai. I somehow feel that good vibes from him like whatever suggestion he gives, it works for me.” Nitish Reddy shed light.
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“He said ‘Macha when you are going to the center, you feel everything is going so fast, don’t go so fast, slow down the game because my first match went in my way. I went there, and everything happened in a few seconds, I didn’t know what to do.’ That helped me and before going to bat, he gave me suggestions.” The all-rounder concluded.
India comes into the second fixture on the back of their 295-run victory at the Optus Stadium, and Nitish Reddy will aim to keep on contributing with both bat and ball.