One of the brightest young stars in Indian cricket – Sunil Gavaskar's praise for Nitish Kumar Reddy

Nitish Kumar Reddy scored his maiden international century in Melbourne, helping India to fight back despite an early wobble in the first innings. Apart from his ton, Reddy looked in great nick with the bat in his hand and coming out to bat at No.8, Reddy’s century was a sheer testimony to his class and calibre and given the fact that this is his first Test series overseas, the numbers look even more special.

Apart from his century, Reddy’s numbers in the Test series have been a great show already. He started the fray with scores of 41 and 38* in Perth. In Adelaide, when the rest of the batters struggled to put up a show, Reddy scored 42 in both the innings. In the solitary innings at Brisbane he could only garner 16 runs. However, he compensated for that with a brilliant ton in Melbourne.

Owing to his sparkling form, erstwhile Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar reserved the highest form of praise for the rising youngster. Writing in his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar penned, “The Melbourne Test brought to the fore one of the brightest young stars in Indian cricket, Nitish Kumar Reddy. He came to the attention of the Indian cricket fans with his performances for the Hyderabad franchise in the IPL, and while he had not done much at the first-class level, it’s a credit to Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors to have seen enough to pitchfork him into the Test arena.”

He further added, “In his debut Test match in Perth itself, it became evident that here was a cricketer who could read situations and play accordingly. With every subsequent Test match, that impression of a good ‘cricketing head’ on his shoulders began to get stronger and stronger. And in Melbourne, when India were looking down the barrel, he came through the fire with an outstanding century that has cemented his place in the team for a long time to come.”

Drawing a bit of parallel with Hardik Pandya, Gavaskar said, “Ever since the unavailability of Hardik Pandya for Test cricket, India has been looking for an all-rounder who can bowl medium pace and bat as well. Reddy’s bowling is still a work in progress, but as a batter, he is definitely better than Pandya was around the same time.”