Hours of net batting, power hitting irrespective of formats during Andhra camp: Reddy's mantra for success
HYDERABAD: All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has been a revelation for the Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. The 20-year-old from Andhra turned out to be a vital cog for the 2016 champions in their resurgence. He has played a couple of brilliant knocks to steer the team to safety after the early fall of the wickets on a few occasions. His 37-ball 64 against Punjab Kings and a quickfire 76 off just 42 balls against Rajasthan Royals helped the Pat Cummins-led side to win the matches despite being in trouble at the early stage.
Reddy might have rescued SRH with the bat when they were in trouble but he himself was in trouble and in dire need of a quick turnaround when the season started. After making his IPL debut in 2023, where he didn't get the opportunity to bat in two matches he played, his performance with the ball was below par as he leaked 54 runs from five overs he bowled across the two outings.
He was fortunate that the Hyderabad franchise decided to retain him but needed to prove his worth. Knowing the situation, Reddy started working on his game at the commencement of the 2023-24 domestic season with Andhra head coach N Nirmal Kumar. The fact that he trained under Kumar for three seasons during his under-19 days worked in his favour.
"He has always been a batting all-rounder. In fact, in his first U-19 season with Andhra, he used to open the batting and bowling. I changed that the next season as I knew India U-19 team has so many specialised opening batters and bowlers. Since then, he has picked up both with the willow and ball," coach Kumar told this daily.
Reddy's last domestic season with Andhra can be termed satisfactory if not excellent as he played quite a few good innings in both the Ranji Trophy and limited-overs tournaments. Since the early days, Reddy has been a free-flowing batter but the same was not getting translated on the field. Kumar knew that and he decided to give him a free hand no matter which format he was playing.
"I asked him to play his natural game irrespective of the formats. We treated him as a specialised batter when it comes to training in the nets in the last season. He used to bat for at least an hour in the nets alongside our pure batters every day. I made him face all kinds of bowlers to give him that confidence and practice," added Kumar.
There were areas where Reddy needed to improve. The incoming deliveries from the left-arm spinners were troubling him. Similarly, his downswing speed of the bat was just not proving enough for the perfect execution of the shots. Kumar, who has been working with various Andhra teams for the last 25 years, found out the flaws and decided to work on them.
"He was stretching a lot while facing the left-arm spinners. The wide gap between two legs meant it was his pad which was coming first so he was getting trapped in front of the wickets. I asked him to reduce the gap between the legs. This change helped him bring the bat first while defending. Similarly, we worked on his downswing of the bat with the trainer. To get the requisite speed, we asked him to have a backlift so as to get the speed for downswing to execute the shots perfectly."
These minor changes did wonders for Reddy as he looked like a different batter this season. In nine matches so far, he has scored 239 runs with an average of 47.80 and a strike rate of 152.22. He has scored two half-centuries hitting 12 fours and 17 sixes. Kumar credited the hard work his ward did during the camps for the success. "We focussed completely on power hitting during the camps. While others were given the practice according to the formats, instructions to him were clear. Focus on power hitting and try to be as natural as he can be irrespective of the formats," said the coach.
Kumar is happy with Reddy's show so far. "He was quite eager to perform when the IPL started. We spoke on a few occasions but exchange messages quite regularly. After every match, I message him explaining what went well and what areas he needs to improve. For me, it's just the beginning as given his potential, he will only improve from here onwards," signed off the coach.