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‘Nitish Reddy is only 22, and you call him a bits-and-pieces cricketer?’ Hanuma Vihari lashes out as all-rounder slammed
Hanuma Vihari launched a staunch defence of Nitish Reddy after the India all-rounder copped criticism.
Nitish Kumar Reddy has played only 17 matches for India, but his career can be divided into two halves. One being his debut series in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the other, post it. Nitish’s performance Down Under was one of India's very few positives on the tour. Reddy took five wickets and scored 298 runs across the five matches, including a memorable maiden century at Melbourne’s Boxing Day Test. He may not have scored many fifties, but he had plenty of 30s and 40s to lead India’s revival in the lower order. An injury sidelined him for months, but the belief was that once he was back, Reddy would continue his upward climb.
Surprisingly enough, that didn’t happen. And if anything, Reddy’s graph dipped as he’s struggled to put up even one noteworthy performance – with bat or ball. Reddy struggled in England with just 45 runs and three wickets and continues to do so in white-ball formats. Moreover, with Hardik Pandya rested, Washington Sundar injured, and Ayush Badoni being brought in as his replacement, the team management’s decision to play Nitish bowl and have him bowl just two overs received criticism. Besides, the fact that he scored just 20 didn’t help his cause. However, an early verdict is out with the public deeming the all-rounder ‘not good enough’ to play for India, but Hanuma Vihari, the former India batter and an Andhra veteran, feels otherwise.
“Can you tell me anyone else in the country who is at the level of Nitish who can bat and bowl seam? And he’s 22. You call a 22-year-old ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer? Write him off just like that?” Vihari shared on X in response to a post.
“Can you tell me anyone else in the country who is at the level of Nitish who can bat and bowl seam? And he’s 22. You call a 22-year-old ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer? Write him off just like that?”
Vihari throws up stats
The overs bowled by him in different formats: 3 ODI matches - 7 overs. 4 T20 matches - 9 overs 3 wickets at 7.88 economy-rate (45 average with the bat) 10 Test matches - 86 overs 8 wickets (60 strike-rate), which isn’t bad for a 4th seamer. He got a 100 in Melbourne, which many can only dream of, like you and me.”
Against New Zealand in the 2nd ODI at Rajkot, Reddy came out at a tricky time. At No. 7, Reddy hit a six but, barring that, struggled to accelerate on a slowish surface. KL Rahul’s century guided India to a decent total but couldn’t prevent an Indian defeat. An Indian team representative spoke about the opportunity given to Nitish and what he could have done to make the most of it.
"For someone who's making their way, particularly with the bat tonight (Wednesday), it was that perfect chance where you're walking in that situation, and you've got a chance to spend 15 overs at the wicket. You really have to take those chances to push your case to be selected," India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said during the post-match press conference.
