IPL’s Emerging Player Nitish Kumar Reddy recalled Pat Cummins’ support and opened up on his surprise SRH retention.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, the breakout star of IPL 2024 and winner of the Emerging Player award, has spoken about the impact of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins.
Reddy, the 21-year-old all-rounder, revealed his surprise at Cummins’ knowledge of his skills. “When he joined, he said, ‘Nitish, you’re playing very well’. 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,” Nitish told News18 CricketNext.
This supportive leadership, coupled with Reddy’s own talent, proved to be a winning combination. He played a crucial role in SRH’s journey to the IPL final, with a standout performance of 64 runs against Punjab Kings early in the season.
“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,” Reddy said of his knock.
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Another surprise for Reddy was being retained by SRH despite not having played many matches. “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,” admitted Reddy.
The SRH star has played 13 matches for the team in 2024, scoring 303 runs with a strike rate of 142.92 and averaging at 33.67 runs. Reddy’s impressive IPL showing earned him a call-up to the Indian team’s tour of Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, a hernia injury prevented him from participating. He now might receive a call-up for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka in August.
Last Updated on July 12, 2024