The Melbourne Cricket Ground held its breath in palpable tension as Nitish Kumar Reddy, batting at 99 not out, was to face the third ball of the 115th over from Scott Boland on Saturday. Standing in the stands, his father Mutyalu was remembering God earnestly. Not far away, his mother, Manasa, and sister, Tejaswi, were also praying. Back in India, his coaches, Nirmal Kumar in Ranchi and CD Thomson in Hyderabad, were extremely tense as they watched the action from their respective TV screens.
The whole situation resembled a tense scene from a Telugu movie potboiler – the hero about to get a major win, and his family anxiously hoping for it to happen.
Boland bowled a full ball at the stumps, and with an elegant loft over mid-on, Nitish reached his first Test century. The stadium, including the entire Indian team in the dugout, rose to applaud a splendid knock played by their youngest touring member.
Overwhelmed with joy, Mutyalu-who in 2016 left a secure government job to champion Nitish’s cricketing dreams-wept openly, his hands pressed together in prayer, thanking God amidst the deafening applause from fans around him.
The joyous tears of Manasa, Tejaswi, commentators, and spectators in India and at the MCG mirrored Nitish’s exuberant Bahubali-style celebration on hitting his first international century, coming after his Pushpa-inspired celebration on reaching the half-century mark.
Back home, Nirmal and Thomson were beaming with pride as Nitish marked his grand arrival in the international cricket arena. They say movies rarely mirror real life, but on December 28, 2024, in bustling Melbourne, the sounds of cheering crowds and the crack of the bat blurred the lines between reality and a cinematic dream as India unearthed a new cricket star in Nitish, who eventually made 114 on Sunday.
“It’s been a joy and an absolute privilege to watch him bat. We’ve been wishing for this from a long time. I was watching it with my whole family back home and since all of us know him very well, we were getting pretty anxious when he refused a couple of singles as well.”
“But there was celebration all around him getting the hundred. We’ve got a small baby in the house, which is my daughter’s son and he also got startled and joined the celebration. So, it was exhilarating to put it in a simple word. I came to Hyderabad to celebrate Christmas with the family and this is now a new year present in advance,” said the USA-based Thomson to IANS.
Nitish’s century thrilled Nirmal, who praised his family’s efforts, hardwork and sacrifice. “He came in the pressure situation, and to then share a hundred-plus stand with Washington Sundar, and get India past the follow-on, and hit the hundred in Australia in front of his father, mother and sister, absolutely wonderful.”
“His father struggled a lot for Nitish’s growth in cricket. He resigned from his government job and stayed back for Nitish’s cricket. He was so passionate about cricket and seeing Nitish’s abilities, he made a lot of sacrifices for him to play at the highest level. To see him happy feels so wonderful,” he said to IANS.
Nitish’s mature demeanor, where he showed zero signs of anxiousness or itchiness, incredibly impressed Thomson. “Even before he got his 50, I had a feeling that if he gets the support from the other end, this boy is going to score big. Generally you see guys getting their first hundreds, they’re very wild and pumping their fists in there. But he was calm, he let the emotions flow, and rode on it before waving to the crowd.”
“That’s the sign which augurs well for not only him, but for the future matches he’s going to play and for the teams he’s going to represent. His calmness has been a standout too – especially when guiding the team under pressure, and definitely having a lefty in Washington batting at the other end did help to rotate the strike and take the pressure off.”
Nirmal also expressed a similar sentiment. “To handle that pressure situation against world’s top class bowlers like Starc, Cummins, Lyon, and dominate them is something which made me very happy. He didn’t feel any pressure anywhere.”
“The only time I felt he was feeling the pressure was when batting on 97, the singles came and he didn’t take it. Even then, he wasn’t looking for his hundred and was on lookout for chances of scoring more runs for India. He was always looking for runs for the team, which I really liked as he’s a team man.”
Having known Nitish for 10-12 years from their time in Andhra, Thomson noted his Melbourne knock perfectly illustrated four key coaching principles – training, technique, tactical awareness, and temperament.
“He literally worked, pushed his body to the limit over the last couple of years to develop that strength that’s required when playing at the elite level. He’s been one of the guys who’s not been troubled by the moving ball, and by the ball cutting off the wicket right throughout the series.”
“His ability to choose when to hit the ball, where to hit it and against which bowler to hit it was a standout along with the temperament and he displayed all of it in this whole series, and hats off to him.”
“It’s very easy for us coaches to sit down here and say he could or should have done this and that. But total salute to the boy, his family, and his father, who’s been like a rock behind him. I’m sure it’s just the beginning of greater things to come.”
According to Thomson, Nitish possesses remarkable mental strength; he readily tackles challenges and adapts his approach, a quality also enhanced by his time playing IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“Whenever you adapt, and learn, you develop your temperament rather than staying in the same zone. Nitish right throughout the years has always been a big run scorer, like he got a 400 in junior cricket, and always had that skill to score at will.”
“The development has been in his self-belief after going to the IPL, and being there with all the top players over there – by seeing how they train, and positivity they bring to their thought processes. That’s showed in his growth over a year and a half.”
“He’s not looking at every game like it’s his last game and goes in saying that, ‘I’m young, I will get there and I’ve got this’. That mental toughness is not developed overnight, it’s one of the hardest things that takes time to develop.”
“It has come due to product of his travel, the upbringing he’s had, or the limitations there. But to see him perform really well on a stage in front of 70-80,000 people and not be fazed by it, total salute to the boy.”
Nirmal, who coached Nitish for four years in the U19 setup before reuniting in last year’s Ranji Trophy, recalled about the youngster’s fondness of playing in pressure situations.
“If he has to score 20 runs in two overs, he will say ‘I will go and finish’. If he has to defend 10 runs in the last over, he will stand up and say ‘I will stop those runs and we will win’. He is like that. Whatever happens in a game, he takes responsibility for everything and is used to doing it.”
Nirmal highlights the Andhra Cricket Association’s (ACA) residential academies as instrumental in Nitish’s progress – starting from his enrollment at the U14 level in Kadapa, before moving to Vizianagaram centre.
The academies were established by MSK Prasad, the former Indian wicket keeper-batter, who previously served as ACA’s director of cricket and subsequently as chief selector for the senior men’s national team.
From the U14 academy, Prasad identified Nitish as a notable talent, as he climbed steadily through the age-group system. Nitish also received significant support from Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari, a key figure in India’s 2021 incredible drawn Sydney Test.
“Last season, when I was the head coach for the Andhra Ranji team, he focused on batting, after being heavily focused on bowling in previous two seasons. He scored a hundred against Bihar and had a knock of 70 too as a number seven batter. Since then, he has performed with the batting in senior cricket,” added Nirmal.
Apart from Nitish’s eye-catching boundaries, the firmness in his footwork and watertight defence, Thomson, who was with Andhra till 2020, pointed out how Nitish’s ever-learning nature makes him stand apart from other youngsters.
“You could give him a tip or two, and leave it. Then, you come back again 10-15 days later, and he’s adopted that. He’s one guy who will listen to you with keen intent, absorb it from you what it is, and assimilate that particular thing. Right from childhood, he had this gift, and talent.”
“The line they say is, talent is nothing but the ability to learn faster than another person. So that ability, Nitish displayed as a very young kid. Any coach who works with him will realise that he’s given him a tip, this boy has gone back, come back two days later and put it into the thing.”
Whenever Thomson is back home from the USA, Nitish and Mutyalu make it a point to meet him, where the focus is to work on his power hitting skills via special camps and one-on-one sessions. “In USA, I learnt how baseballers hit a ball with a small bat further away. I brought the learnings back, and shared it with him.”
“I could see that one month later, he’s already adopted it into his game. So hats off to the boy, as learning is the top skill that he has. You will see that he keeps improving with every outing that he’s having there.”
Years down the line, the memory of December 28, 2024, will instantly evoke the palpable tension of Melbourne when Nitish neared his century, and the eruption of cheers when he finally reached his hundred.
Everyone connected to Nitish – the Reddy family, Nirmal, Thomson, Prasad, and Vihari – will distinctly remember the overwhelming emotions they experienced during that memorable moment, as it was a day where cinematic scenes transformed into a breathtaking reality.
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