The second Test is over, England overpowered India in the third Test, and now the action would shift to the 4th Test match of the series. Although India lost the last Test match from more of a winning situation, they would be happy by the progress Nitish Kumar Reddy has made as an all-rounder. Reddy has dedicated his bowling progress to Australia’s captain.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, India’s all-rounder, has acknowledged that his bowling improved because of his work experience with his Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins and India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel. During India’s tour to Australia, Reddy participated as an all-rounder where he scored a century at MCG, but his bowling was not much impressive. India experienced a seamer short during that tour.
He got more than two wickets during day one of the third Test at Lord’s. He successfully got the important wickets of England’s openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. Captain Shubman Gill believed that he could play at the earliest 14th over as Jasprit Bumrah and Muhammad Siraj couldn’t get any wicket, so he introduced him and then Reddy bowled for 14 overs, as equal overs to Mohammad Siraj, it should be a great news for Reddy and India also.
He naturally generates more swings than the average seamer, being a slow pacer. Surprisingly, he also extracted the most average seam, even more than Jasprit Bumrah, and he mostly targets the stumps also.
“After the Australia tour I felt like I have to improve my bowling and my consistency,” Reddy said. “That’s what I looked [at]. And yeah, Pat is my captain [in the IPL], and he’s been brilliant in Australia, and I have asked him [for] some tips and he has been telling me how things would have been done in Australia, how I can go through in Australia. And that’s a great experience for me, sharing with Pat Cummins.”
“Coming to this tour, I would say, working with Morne Morkel has been great for me. He’s working with me for a couple of weeks, and we are seeing good progress in my bowling, and I’m really enjoying working with him.”
Before Test games, Reddy played first-class games and one intra-squad game. “We’ve been working on my consistency a lot since I get a bit of swing both ways,” Reddy said. “I just want to be consistent in these areas. So we are working on that. I’ve been working hard on my bowling for one year or two years. I’ve been doing a lot of hard work, but later on it is about understanding things and believing in myself. If you believe, that’s when your hard work comes on point. That’s what I’m realising now.”
During the IPL, Reddy only bowled five overs throughout the tournament because he was surviving an injury, but he also managed his workload properly.
“After the injury it’s been a bit tough for me to get into my rhythm,” Reddy said. “It had been hurting a bit after the injury as well. At the end of the IPL season, I got my bowling started into the matches and I felt great. I just want to enjoy the movement, want to bowl what my team wants from me, and I guess that’s what I have done exactly, and pretty happy the way I bowled today, and I just want to continue tomorrow.” He further added.
