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Follow UsWhen news broke out that Nitish Kumar Reddy was going to make his Test debut in Perth, there were fears that the 21-year-old was too raw to be thrown into the deep end.
Nitish, had, after all, only averaged 21 with the bat in first-class cricket in the lead-up to the warmup games against Australia ‘A’. And across the two unofficial Tests against Australia ‘A’, the youngster looked very much ‘not ready’ with the bat, averaging 17.75 in four innings.
But asked to sink or swim in brutal conditions at the Optus Stadium, Nitish showcased levels with the bat that pretty much took every single person by shock.
He rescued the side from 73/6 to 150 in the first innings in Perth, hammering 41 off 59 balls, and what stood out there was the fearlessness in his stroke-making. The same was reflected in how he tackled Nathan Lyon, whom he reverse-swept out of the attack.
Nitish walked into a completely different situation in the second innings - with India having already batted Australia out of the contest - and there, the right-hander pummelled a tired Aussie attack to submission, smashing 38 off just 27 balls.
It took only two innings for Nitish to convince the management that their intuition was right, and that he was talented enough to not just learn on the job but win games of cricket while doing so.
Well, now three innings into his Test career, Nitish has probably convinced the management that he is certainly the next big thing who has to be backed to the hilt no matter his returns.
A cameo on debut is good. Backing it up with another cameo is great. But what about making it a hat-trick of blitzes?
India keep throwing Nitish into ludicrously high-pressure situations and he keeps delivering. It’s absurd considering this is a batter who still, forget being a finished product, averages all of 22.57 in first-class cricket.
At 141/8, with Starc on song, India would have taken 165 eyes closed, even with one recognized batter left in the middle.
But Nitish has always dreamt big and pushed boundaries, and he’s achieved everything he’s dreamt of by manifesting it.
It is what he did today at the Adelaide Oval too, propelling India’s score to 180 when it looked like they’d get bundled out for a 150-ish score for all money.
Once again, it was the sheer audacity of this youngster that stood out. Reverse-sweeping Lyon is one thing, but with the side’s back against the wall, Nitish reverse-slapped an in-rhythm Scott Boland for a maximum. The hit left the crowd in awe of Nitish but, crucially, it seemed to rattle Boland, who lost his lines after that and eventually had to be taken off the attack.
But that wasn’t even his best shot of the day. Nitish’s best moment came against an on-fire Mitchell Starc, whom he bludgeoned over cover all the way for a maximum. It was reminiscent of the shot Rohit Sharma hit off Pat Cummins at the same venue six years ago, except this was being done by a youngster playing his second Test, against the greatest pink-ball bowler in history.
We’re only in the second Test of this series, meaning Nitish still has potentially seven more innings remaining. But he’s already equalled the record for the most sixes hit by an Indian in a Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia (6). Only two have hit as many, Murali Vijay in 2014/15 and Virender Sehwag in 2003/04, and both of them took eight innings a piece. Nitish is already there in three. Fair to say, at this rate, the prodigy from Visakhapatnam is going to obliterate the record at the end of the series.
A fortnight ago, fans back home in India were worried about whether Nitish was ready for Tests. In the span of 15 days, the tables have turned, with Australia now being the ones scared of the youngster.
Sky seems to be the limit for this generational talent, who seems to be going from strength to strength with every passing innings.
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