Nitish Kumar Reddy shows there’s more than one string to his bow with a proper Test-match knock at MCG

More than 83,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) held their collective breath, almost willing Australia’s public enemy No. 1 to somehow survive one ball. Somehow.

Mohammed Siraj has been pilloried and booed and abused and vilified in the last three weeks, from the time he gave a volatile sendoff to Travis Head at the Adelaide Oval in the second Test. His form has taken a nosedive, and even in this Test, he leaked runs by the bushel in Australia’s first-innings tally of 474 .

And yet, many thousands who had just three minutes previously greeted his arrival at the batting crease with a crescendo of boos were rooting for him to keep Pat Cummins out. Not because they had suddenly developed a great fondness for India’s No. 11, but because they were so entranced and captivated by the young man, batting at the other end on 99, that they wanted him to get to three-figures. Desperately so.

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Nitish Kumar Reddy will savour December 28, 2024, for the rest of his life. A somewhat surprise inclusion in the Test squad to Australia last month and keeping his place in the XI for the fourth Test on the back of his all-round skills, ahead of Shubman Gill, he went where only four Indians had before him, in making a century in their first appearance at the celebrated MCG. Nitish joined a select band that includes Vinoo Mankad, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Ajinkya Rahane, all stalwarts of Indian cricket, in marking his first Test foray at this ground with a hundred. This was as good a century as one could hope to see, a proper Test-match innings if there was one, with his team on the back foot and staring a huge deficit in the face.

What an innings , dear Nitish. To become the third youngest Indian to score a Test hundred in Aus and what an ocassion to do it with the team in trouble. I am sure this will be first of many. Enjoyed your positivity and fearless stroke play. Keep it up. God bless you always 🌸 pic.twitter.com/tSWuL4kKYF

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) December 28, 2024

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Even earlier in the series, the 21-year-old had showcased his batting skills which belied his numbers before the start of the first Test in Perth. In 21 First-Class games, he averaged in the early 20s with the bat, with a highest of 159 but only two other scores of more than 50 in 35 innings, when he broke into the Test squad. He was picked more on promise than performance, his exploits for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 playing a not insignificant part in his India selection.

But in Perth and in Adelaide – he top-scored in three of India’s four innings over the first two Tests – Nitish batted with flair and aggression, taking the fight to the bowlers and not backing down. That was perhaps the right approach given that the conditions were decidedly bowler-friendly. But at the MCG, where the pitch was a little more benign and where application could go a long way, Nitish showed that there was more than one string to his bow.

It wasn’t that he didn’t play his strokes – he had 10 fours and one glorious six off Nathan Lyon even when the veteran offie operated with a long-on in place – but he didn’t do so on a whim and a prayer. He had walked into a massive buzz in the morning after Rishabh Pant’s dismissal , out caught at third man off the leading edge attempting an outrageous scoop even though two men were manning the leg-side boundary behind square. He must have felt the butterflies but you couldn’t spot any from the outside, such was his composure and his mental state .

“He’s the kind of guy who gives 120 per cent to everything he does, not just cricket,” said Washington Sundar, his partner in arms during an innings-retrieving stand of 127 for the eighth wicket, an association that highlighted the depth in the Indian batting, the significance of having all-rounders and which also showed up the lack of discipline and application of the top order on a track where there were plenty of runs to be had. “I have known him for a long time and we all knew that this one was coming, sooner rather than later.”

Nitish’s discipline a lesson for his more illustrious colleagues

Nitish’s shot-selection was impeccable, his timing spot-on, and when he decided to go over the top, he did so whole-heartedly, without self-doubt or hesitancy. Australia tried everything, including a seven-two field after an hour-long stoppage for rain, trying to suck him into driving away from his body, but Nitish refused to rise to the bait. In his self-denial was an object lesson for some of his more illustrious colleagues, whose bat has been magnetically attracted to deliveries dangled in the corridor of uncertainty.

Just about the only time Nitish was caught in two minds was in his calling, in his stop-start running between the wickets with Washington. That can happen when the pair hasn’t played a lot together, but one suspects that won’t last long. Nitish and Washington, himself only 25, are the future backbones of the Indian batting alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, Gill, Pant and KL Rahul, and they will find themselves batting with each other several times going forward, when their understanding will become more seamless and less troublesome.

Even though he was closing in on three-figures when Australia went to their 7-2 mode, Nitish looked neither anxious nor disturbed. He knew that if he didn’t get out, the hundred would inevitably come. On 85 off 119 when the players went off for rain, he had reached 97 off 162 – 12 runs in 43 deliveries – when Washington was eventually dismissed by Lyon, caught at slip.

When he bunted Scott Boland over mid-off and somehow set off on a second run off the last ball of the over, he put his right hand on his head, aware of the SNAFU that could leave him stranded on 99. Pat Cummins came on instead of Lyon and took only three deliveries to dismiss Jasprit Bumrah; Siraj had to negotiate the three remaining deliveries for Nitish to have a shot at three-figures.

MCG cheers for Nitish as one

The first ball from Cummins screamed past Siraj’s outside edge, the second was a bumper he easily ducked under. Now, a silly-point joined a forward short-leg, the crowd tensed, Nitish’s heart beat at about a million times a second but even that wasn’t as rapid as Siraj’s heartbeat. The much-maligned No. 11 dead-batted Cummins’ last ball and the MCG erupted. Such was the power of the young man at the non-striker’s end that everyone at the ground wanted him to get to three-figures. How often can you say that of an Australian crowd, rooting for an overseas batter to reach 100? How often can you say that of any crowd, for that matter?

Absolute cinema! 🎥😮‍💨

As #NitishKumarReddy brought up his maiden Test century in the #BoxingDayTest, relive the nail-biting drama that unfolded leading up to his milestone moment!#AUSvINDOnStar 👉 4th Test, Day 4, SUN, 29th DEC, 4:30 AM pic.twitter.com/N0YMj54MYU

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 28, 2024

Nitish calmly played out two deliveries from Boland, and when he found the third in his hitting arc, he cleared his front leg and drove crisply over straight mid-on for four. His father, watching anxiously, broke into wild applause along with everyone else at the ground. Nitish had celebrated his half-century with a Pushpa reprisal, the century was an ode to Baahubali as he went down on one knee and placed his helmet on top of his bat handle. He has a sense of drama, our Nitish, to go with a sense of occasion.