It can be tricky playing for the first time in Perth. Especially for someone from India, who has to adjust to the bounce on one of the fastest pitches in the world. But Nitish Reddy, who had also grown up listening to the folklore about Western Australia, was not one bit intimidated. The 21-year-old looked the part on his Test debut, finishing as the top-scorer in India’s 150 all out.
Nitish was one of the few Indian batters across both sides who got the weight-transfer right on a pitch with extravagant seam movement, going fully forward or back, and being decisive while at it. At one point in time, he even upper-cut Australian captain Pat Cummins, his captain at Sunrisers Hyderabad and one of the best bowlers in the world, for a six. It might not have exactly been what his head coach had asked him to do against bouncers at Perth, which was to “take it on the shoulder like taking a bullet for your country”, Nitish’s own way to skin the cat differently worked well in tow with how inspired he felt after that chat with his coach.
“Even I had heard a lot about Perth. I still remember that after our last practice, I had a chat with Gautam [Gambhir] sir. He mentioned that when you get any bouncers or are facing a sharp spell, just take it onto your shoulder like you’re taking a bullet for your country,” Nitish said, adding how the words from Gambhir left him fired up and motivated to perform.
“That really helped me a lot, like that just boosted me up. I had that on the back of my mind. About that Perth wicket, everyone was talking like there will be good bounce in this wicket but when he said that thing to me, I felt like you need to take bullets for your country. That’s the best thing I have heard from Gautam sir.”
Nitish also expertly negotiated Nathan Lyon during his innings of 41 off 59 balls, hitting four boundaries against the veteran offspinner at a venue where he flourished and outbowled the tall-fast Australian pacers. Two of Nitish’s boundaries were pristine cover drives and the remaining two reverse-sweeps off the middle of the bat.
“I felt it was a pretty good wicket for fast bowlers and it was hard to make runs, so when Nathan Lyon came on to bowl and I saw no drift for two-three balls, I felt like I could just take him on. Like if I get quick runs, that will help our scoreboard. That’s the reason I took on Nathan Lyon,” Nitish explained after the first day’s play.
Of course the day had started with him getting his Test cap from Virat Kohli, someone he admired while growing up. He was told that he is going to play on the eve of this Test, and he celebrated that by going out for dinner and a cycle ride with his co-debutant Harshit Rana.
“It was a great feeling. I always dreamed about playing Indian cricket and it was such a fantastic moment. Virat [Kohli] has been my idol since when I started playing cricket, so getting a cap from him was a happy moment for me,” Nitish said.
“We [him and Harshit] got to know just before one day and we were a little excited as well and obviously nervousness was also there. We had dinner and we were just keeping ourselves the way we were last week, we wanted to continue in that way. We didn’t want to take too much pressure, so we had a cycle ride as well last evening and it was good, so yeah, that’s what happened.”
Even though Nitish scored nearly one-third of his team’s runs, he didn’t think it was a “dream” innings. He also went on to credit his preparations to the two matches he played against Australia A at Mackay and MCG in the lead-up to this Border-Gavaskar Trophy series opener.
“It was a good start, it’s not a dream inning but it was a good start,” he said. “To be honest, India A series helped me a lot because it was my first time to Australia and playing on these wickets compared to India, there are a lot of differences there, the bounce and everything and that India A series helped me to perform here.”
Nitish revealed that the message from captain Jasprit Bumrah to the bowling group during the innings changeover was to not try to swing the ball too much.
“The message was to hit the areas. The ball was going off the pitch, so don’t try too much to swing the ball, just hit that area and let the ball do the work,” Nitish revealed. “We were discussing discipline in bowling, so that’s what I guess Bumrah and Siraj and Harshit have done. And obviously the wicket is helping a lot, so we don’t need to do much to get the wickets. We kept the discipline and eventually wickets came our way.”
With Australia tottering at 67/7, Nitish said India have the “advantage” and he hopes that his side puts in a better batting performance in the second innings.
“Obviously we have an advantage now and hopefully we play the second innings better while batting. Let’s put them under pressure with a big score.”