Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter Nitish Kumar gave an interesting insight into Australia Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins’ dedication towards his job and the amount of effort he puts in in order to get to know his players better.
Nitish was among the Sunrisers’ key performers in their run to the final in the 17th season, in which they ended up losing to the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders. And speaking to News18 Cricketnext, Nitish revealed how Cummins had already done his homework on him before the two had even met.
“Pat joined before just three days before the IPL. Meanwhile, I did well in the practice games and the coaches were really impressed. But I wanted the skipper to know. I was like, ‘Does he know how I play and how I approach the game?’. But when he joined, he said, ‘Nitish, you’re playing very well’.”
“I was like shocked. How does he know about my batting? He didn’t see me in the practice sessions So I asked him about it and he said he saw my batting videos on YouTube and appreciated my talent. So that’s really a kind of boost,” Reddy said.
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Cummins had been bought by the ‘Orange Army’ for a whopping Rs 20.5 crore in the IPL auction last December and the franchise promptly named him the captain, relieving South Africa’s Aiden Markram from the role.
Impact Shorts
View AllThe pacer had led Australia to the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup titles last year and experienced instant success with SRH by guiding them to the final, reviving the fortunes of the franchise that had finished among the bottom three in each of the last three seasons.
Nitish too announced himself in the world’s biggest T20 league after playing just two matches last year, collecting 303 runs in 13 matches batting in the middle order, striking at 142.92 along the way. The Andhra batting all-rounder later received his maiden India call-up for the ongoing tour of Zimbabwe, but ultimately had to be withdrawn due to an injury and replaced by Shivam Dube.