Just a few hours before the much-anticipated Test match debut, Indian cricketer Nitish Reddy confessed his feelings towards playing his maiden Test match, featuring Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series, and said he felt anxious for the very first time he would play Test cricket.
The young lad recalled how he was able to focus on the match after speaking to the Indian Head Coach Gautam Gambhir, who always inspires calm before the storm, so to speak. Perhaps this is the exchange that led Gambhir to congratulate Reddy on a quick and effective 41 off 59 balls in the team’s total of 150 runs in the first innings.
‘The Perth wicket has been highly spoken about. There was a feeling or bit of nerves. It was in my head that people were saying how one might bounce on the pitch in Perth. But then I again recalled whatever Gautam sir told me after our last practice session,” Nitish addressed the media during a post-day press conference.
“I remember him saying something like, ‘whenever a bouncer is bowled, it should be received on the shoulder. This was when I felt that it was your country’ s call, go out there and take the shot’. In fact, that is the thing that pumped me up. When he said that I felt that I have to take a bullet for the country. That’s the best thing I have heard from Gautam sir,” he continued.
The 21-year-old Indian cricketer claimed that he was aware that he was getting a day before the match. Nevertheless, despite the joy, he managed to compose himself by engaging in some leisurely activities with a fellow debutant named Harshit Rana before the first Test match commenced.
“When I (and pacer Harshit Rana) found out about our debut, it was just over one day, and we were thrilled. It’s a good thing, too, because we were eating dinner and trying to stay calm like the previous week
“We did not want to take too much pressure. We had a cycle ride as well last evening, so that was good,” he said.
As a batsman, Reddy has left a good mark, but as a bowler, he is yet to be used as the skipper of the Indian team and preferred his specialist quicks on day one. However, the young lad might be called upon to bowl some overs if the Australians show some resistance at the beginning of the second day.
