Vishwas Puri
India’s new all-rounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy, earned a lot of
admiration today on account of his complete all-round performance in
the second T20I. The 21-year-old recently made his international debut
in the first T20I against Bangladesh. Just in his second international
outing, he scored his maiden T20I fifty in just 27 balls.
Nitish came to bat when India lost 3 wickets, at just a score of 41.
In some of his initial balls, Reddy took his time to assess the pitch
and then started attacking brutally. He scored a brisk 74 runs in just
34 balls by scoring 7 sixes and 3 fours.
Not just his batting, but his bowling was also up to the mark, as he
clinched 2 wickets by just allowing 23 runs in his four-over spell.
The Indian team is abundant in terms of spin bowling all-rounders, but
the pace bowling all-rounders are rare in the circuit. However, it is
too early to judge, but his clinical performance in the T20I is a
proof that he can be one of the important members of the Indian team
in future, if groomed well.
Indian team might be having other best bowling, all-rounders, such as
Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur But, both of them cannot be
classified as a proper all-rounder, as their batting skills are not as
good as their bowling. Shivam Dubai is also currently in the Indian
team, but he rarely balls, and he didn’t even bold single over in the
last two seasons of IPL too.
Nitish’s flexibility also gives him a cut above other all-rounders,
as he can bat at top and middle order and can even finish the game
too, the way he did yesterday.
His selection for the Indian team was also a result of his successful
season of IPL 2024 where he scored 303 runs at a strike rate of
142.92. He was earlier also selected for the Zimbabwe tour in July but
got ruled out later due to his hernia injury.
