Nitish Kumar Reddy managed to make headlines despite India losing the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Reddy smashed his maiden Test century at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and gave credit to a gift that he received from Virat Kohli.
Reddy ended up getting a prized pair of shoes from his icon Virat Kohli. After donning them, Nitish wreaked havoc as he became the first Indian batter to hit a Test century in Australia batting at number 8 spot.
“Back in the locker room, he (Kohli) once asked Sarfaraz (Khan), ‘Sarfu, tera size kya hai?’ (Sarfaraz, what’s your shoe size?), and he said, ‘Nine.’ Then he turned to me, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I have to guess this correctly,’ because even if they weren’t my size, I really wanted his shoes. I said, ‘10,’ and he gave them to me. In the next match, I wore those shoes and scored a hundred!” Reddy said in a podcast with Puma.
“Everyone in the dressing room came up and congratulated me, but I was just looking for one guy—hoping he’d come and talk to me. When Virat bhai (Kohli) finally walked up and told me I had played a wonderful game, that moment itself was special for me. I was also scanning the stands for my father but couldn’t find him. Later, I saw on the screen that he was crying.”
Over the years, Nitish has become one of the crucial members of the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s lineup. During last year’s IPL, the star all-rounder made 303 runs and took three wickets under Pat Cummins’s leadership.
“Travis came up to me and said, ‘Nitish, where are you going to party tonight?’— knowing fully well that I wouldn’t. Then he went on, ‘Australia is such a great place. Melbourne is an amazing city, you have to go out and chill.’ He was just trying to distract me. I just told him, ‘Okay, Travis, one day we’ll both go and party!’ During another match, he was fielding at short leg and warned me, ‘Nitish, if you hit me, I’ll hit you when you bowl!”
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