Nitish Kumar Reddy flourished under Pat Cummins at SRH and he gave a glimpse into how meticulous the Australia pace superstar is.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) paid a record amount for Pat Cummins at the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction and then made him their captain for the season. The Australian didn’t disappoint, leading SRH to the final while playing a stunningly aggressive brand of cricket. While Cummins had won the lot in 2023, leading Australia to the title in the World Test Championship final and the World Cup and retaining the Ashes in England, he couldn’t get his hands on the IPL trophy as well with SRH losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final.
Nitish Kuimar Reddy took three wickets in addition to scoring 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92(Nitish Kumar Reddy Instagram)
Despite that, there is little doubt that Cummins will remain captain if he plays next season and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy gave a lglimpse into how meticulous the Australian is. Reddy was an unknown quantity before what turned out to be his breakthrough season this year but Cummins said that he knew about the 21-year-old before arriving in Hyderabad.
“Pat joined before just three days before the IPL,” Reddy is quoted as saying by News18. “Meanwhile, I did well in the practice games and the coaches were really impressed. But I wanted the skipper to know. I was like, ‘Does he know how I play and how I approach the game?’. But when he joined, he said, ‘Nitish, you’re playing very well’.”
Reddy said that Cummins making the effort to check him out as part of his homework before travelling to India was a boost to his confidence. “I was like shocked. How does he know about my batting? He didn’t see me in the practice sessions So I asked him about it and he said he saw my batting videos on YouTube and appreciated my talent. So that’s really a kind of boost,” Reddy said.
Reddy played 13 games for SRH, scoring 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92 with two half-centuries. He was also a regular with the ball in the middle overs for SRH and took three wickets over the course of the season. These performances earned him a maiden call-up for the Indian T20I team currently in Zimbabwe for a five-match series but Reddy had to pull out due to an injury.
“I had this feeling that I would be getting a chance in the Zimbabwe series. And I got that short call and I didn’t know what to do. I straightaway called my father and he literally started crying… like happy tears. Even my mom was so happy.
“Unfortunately, because of this injury, I’m not a part of this Zimbabwe tour. But it’s a part of an athlete’s life. You have to accept whatever happens. If you ask me, this is not the point where I can stop. There are a lot of matches as well coming. I want to focus. I don’t want to demoralize myself. I want to focus on the future. What happened has happened. We can’t change it, right?” said Reddy.
