Nitish Kumar Reddy, an all-rounder from Andhra Pradesh and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), mentioned that he looks up to Indian cricket star Virat Kohli and former South African player AB de Villiers. Nitish was selected for the Indian team following a successful Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season with SRH, for a five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. Despite not being able to play due to a sports hernia injury, his performance was impressive enough to be considered for future series. He earned the ‘Emerging Player of the Season’ award in this year’s IPL, scoring 303 runs in 11 innings with two half-centuries at a strike rate of 143, and taking three wickets with his seam bowling.
The 21-year-old is currently working to regain his full fitness as the new domestic season begins on September 5 with the Duleep Trophy.
In an interview with Star Sports, Nitish mentioned that he has been a big supporter of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the past decade.
Nitish remembered the first time he met Virat Kohli, when he just shook his hand and got his autograph. He also expressed his hope to perform well against RCB, so that Kohli might take notice of him.
“I really like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. I’ve been a big fan of RCB for the past 10 years. In 2023, I got to meet Virat Kohli. I didn’t have many questions for him; I just wanted to shake his hand and get his autograph. In 2024, I hoped to play well against RCB so that Virat Kohli would see my game. Even though I didn’t get to bat in that game, he remembered my name during the post-game handshake. That was really important to me,” Nitish said in a statement from Star Sports.
Nitish made a big impact in the Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy by scoring a triple century against Tamil Nadu, 190 runs against a strong Karnataka bowling team, and a quadruple century against Nagaland. He ended the 2017-18 season of the tournament with a total of 1,237 runs.
Feeling disappointed with his previous performances, Nitish decided in 2019 to focus only on batting. However, his coach, Srinivas Reddy, suggested that he keep bowling as well, noting that fast-bowling all-rounders are quite rare in India.
After that, Nitish was selected for an ACA training camp to form a group of players for the 2019-20 domestic season. The all-rounder mentioned that he was initially chosen as a backup player in the bigger team, but the captain, Hanuma Vihari, was impressed and advocated for his inclusion in the Ranji team. He then made his debut in the Ranji Trophy against Kerala in January 2020.
Reddy was chosen by SRH for the 2023 IPL but only got to play in two matches where he didn’t get a chance to bat. In July of the previous year, he was invited to join India’s Emerging Players squad for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, but he also didn’t get a chance to bat there.
