"I was shocked. How does he know about my batting?" - Nitish Kumar Reddy on his first interaction with Pat Cummins
IPL 2024's Emerging Player of the Year, Nitish Kumar Reddy, has recalled his first interaction with SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins. The youngster stated the Australian shocked him with his research and appreciation for his talent.
Nitish, who scored 303 runs and picked up three wickets, said Cummins hadn't seen him bat or ball in the practice games because he only joined the SRH camp three days before IPL 2024. The 21-year-old was hoping to impress the skipper.
"When he joined, he said, ‘Nitish, you’re playing very well’," Nitish told News18 CricketNext. "I was 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 thrived under Cummins, who utilized him to the fullest with both the bat and ball. The young all-rounder played a key role in SRH's march to the final but perhaps his best knock came against Punjab Kings early in the season, when he scored a match-winning 64 (37) despite wickets continuously falling at the other end.
“I’ve been actually planning for this innings for a while. When I got the opportunity, I made sure I played a crucial knock. I planned to stick around and take some time. I observed how spinners would bowl and attack them. So, that was the plan. We were three down and going over there and playing in those conditions really boosted my confidence,” he said about the knock.
Thanks to his returns, Nitish got selected for India's tour of Zimbabwe. However, a hernia injury ruled him out of the five-match T20I series.
"It was just surprising" - Nitish Kumar Reddy on SRH retaining him
None of this would have happened had SRH not retained the promising all-rounder and Nitish stated it surprised him when they did.
"I was not expecting that SRH would retain me because they haven’t seen me batting in the matches and even Syed Mushtaq Ali also, I’ve been missing for 2 years. So it was just surprising for me as well. They retained me and I would say they showed some faith in me, that they believed in me," he said in the same interaction.
Nitish will hope to get a call-up for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka in August.