The 21-year-old has the lowest false-shot percentage in the ongoing India-Australia Test series (minimum four innings)
After getting starts in all of his five innings in the first three Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Nitish Kumar Reddy finally registered his maiden fifty on day three of the fourth Test between India and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
41 off 59 and 38* off 27 in Perth, 42 off 54 and 42 off 57 in Adelaide, and 16 off 61 in Brisbane – Reddy looked comfortable and assured every time he walked out to bat in the opening three Tests, but couldn’t touch the 50-run mark for various reasons. The biggest reason is not getting any support from the lower order.
What’s impressive is he got all those runs under pressure and when he came out to bat in the first session on December 28 (Saturday), the situation was no different. India were 191/6, having lost their overnight batter, Rishabh Pant, with Ravindra Jadeja following suit 30 runs later.
Reddy has the lowest false-shot percentage in this series (minimum four innings), so it didn’t come as a surprise when the right-hander started collecting runs with ease from the start of his innings. The 21-year-old announced his arrival with a superb straight drive off Nathan Lyon’s bowling and kept pouncing on every scoring opportunity.
He even danced down the track and whacked Lyon for a maximum straight down the ground. That was his eighth six of the series – the joint-most by an away batter in a series Down Under. Reddy got the support from Washington Sundar at the other end, which made him realise he doesn’t have to go hard at every delivery.
Reddy’s confidence was on display when he attempted a reverse sweep on the penultimate delivery of the 80th over, just two deliveries before the second new ball was set to be available. It was against Mitchell Starc – half-volley outside off – Reddy got to his half-century with a lofted cover drive for a boundary.
When he was picked for the Australia tour, Reddy was averaging in the low 20s with the bat. His selection largely came based on his medium pace, but four Tests into the series, the right-hander has already slammed close to 250 runs at an average of well above 50.
