Fame is a funny thing: Nitish Reddy on how things changed after IPL
Bengaluru, Karnataka: Andhra Pradesh and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy opened up on the emotional moment when he received his Indian jersey last month and how much it meant to him considering that his father risked his own career for sake of his son's cricket.
Nitish was called-up to the Indian squad after a solid Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season with SRH, for the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. Though he could not play due to a sports hernia injury, he has created an impression strong enough to be considered for future series with a 'Emerging Player of the Season' award worthy performance in this year's IPL, scoring 303 runs in 11 innings with two fifties at a strike rate of 143 and taking three wickets with his seam bowling.
The 21-year-old is now working his way back to full fitness as the new domestic season starts on September 5 with Duleep Trophy.
Reddy recalled that when he received his Indian kit, the people who often ridiculed and questioned his father for risking his career to help his son become a player, also got very emotional. In 2016, when Nitish was 13 years old, his father Mutyalu, working for Hindustan Zinc Limited in Visakhapatnam, was to be transferred to Jodhpur, but he decided to quit in order to focus on his son, who had been picked by the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) for district trials. He instead started his own business, which did not do well and everyone started to taunt him, including his extended family.
"Fame is a funny thing. After the IPL, the same people who told my father how he was foolish to risk his career for me started praising him for his foresight. I remembered they got emotional when my India kit arrived," said Nitish, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
"He quit and invested the corpus he received into a microfinance business in Vizag [Visakhapatnam]. But unfortunately, when the business did not do well, our own extended family, society - everyone else started taunting him for his decision. As much as he tried not to let that filter through to me, eventually he could not help it."
"I saw how people's attitudes towards him changed from when he had a job to after he quit. They would disrespect him, he would be ignored."
"I could not take it. That spurred my motivation to give it my all, because my father had given up everything for me. Until then, I had played for fun, but from there on, everything changed," Nitish concluded his point.
The 13-year-old left home to move 700 km to a residential academy of ACA, where he attended middle school and trained. He learned the basics of fast bowling there under local coaches. Nitish recalled that when he had joined the academy, his bowling was no good and he used to "throw".
"Only after I began regular training, I understood biomechanics, how your action impacts different parts of your body, and I worked on correcting it," he added.
Nitish started making waves Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy when he scored a triple ton against Tamil Nadu and 190 against a strong bowling attack of Karnataka and a quadruple ton against Nagaland, finishing the 2017-18 edition of the tournament with 1,237 runs.
But these early successes turned out to be a false dawn as he admitted being "carried away" by his success and flopped in the U19 level.
"I thought I was naturally good. Everyone spoke highly about my technique, and I was flying. The following year, when I graduated to U-19s and flopped, I initially brushed it aside, thinking it was a bad patch. But when I had a second bad season, it gave me a reality check," he added.
Frustrated by his poor performances, in 2019, Nitish decided to play solely as a batter, but Srinivas Reddy, one of his coaches, encouraged him to continue as a bowler, pointing out the rarity of pace bowling all-rounders in India.
After that, Nitish was picked up for an ACA camp to pick up a pool of players for the 2019-20 domestic season. The all-rounder said that he was initially picked up as an understudy in the larger squad but the skipper, Hanuma Vihari, was impressed and pushed for his inclusion in the Ranji squad. He went on to make his Ranji debut against Kerala in January 2020.
"I quickly understood that if in the age group I got two loose balls in an over, in first-class, I would get two in a session. I learned a lot quickly."
Reddy was picked up SRH ahead of the 2023 IPL but got to play only two games in which he did not get to bat. In July last year, he was called up to India's Emerging Players squad for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka but did not get to bat there either.
Nitish said that ahead of IPL 2023, his bowling was better than his batting. He was asked to stay ready for game time by the team management, but he just could not fit into the squad, he added.
"At the Asia Cup too, when I was in the XI, our top order did so well that I could not get a chance in the first three games. In the fourth game, when I was left out, everyone batted. It was on live TV, and it stressed me out quite a lot that I missed a chance. I wondered if Sunrisers would even retain me," he added.
Nitish faced another setback when he injured his ankle that year, ruling him out of an all-important Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which could have decided his fortunes for next year's IPL. The all-rounder recalled being so dejected that he did not even go to the ground even when he regained full fitness.
But one day, he called up ACA and arranged for himself a net practice session against fast bowlers to show everyone that he belonged to the top order while batting. By the time 2024 came and it was time for the IPL, Nitish had developed a solid game against pace, which impressed the SRH skipper and Australian superstar Pat Cummins.
"Then one day, I just called up ACA and requested them to help arrange a few side-armers who would hurl the ball [to me] at 140 clicks from 18 yards. I did not want anyone to tell me I am a lower-order batter. I wanted to show I have it in me to bat in the top order."
"They bowled bouncers. I got hit everywhere initially, but I told myself: come what may, I am going to face up and fight, build character and develop that no-defeat attitude. I continued this routine whenever I was training back home. That is perhaps why, coming into IPL 2024, I felt so confident playing at a proper pace. In the nets when Pat Cummins saw me react to pace, he was very impressed," he added.
