Nitish's strongest attributes are his maturity and mindset, says childhood coach

New Delhi: Hemal Watekar vividly recalls the day he welcomed a talented 13-year-old, Nitish Kumar Reddy, into his Lakshy Cricket Academy in Visakhapatnam. This was in 2013, a year after the former Andhra batter had retired from his first-class career. Reddy was one of the first students to join the academy, showing immense potential from the beginning.

“The first thing I noticed was his height. He was taller than other kids of his age and seemed an ideal candidate to be groomed as a medium-pacer,” said Watekar. “But when I saw him bat, I was convinced he was a special talent. He packed real punch in his shots and he had more power than the rest of the boys,” the 47-year-old added.

If being crowned Emerging Player of IPL 2024 – he scored 303 runs at a strike rate of 143 for runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad – was testament to his power game, his memorable maiden Test ton at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday showed that there are more facets to Reddy’s batting than brute force. The 21-year-old stitched a vital 127-run eighth-wicket partnership with Washington Sundar (50) before completing his hundred, remaining unbeaten on 105 when play was halted early due to rain.

Watekar reckons his ward has the game and temperament to excel in white-ball cricket too. “For sure, he has the skills and the mindset to play all formats for the country. I am not at all surprised with his maturity. He knows to bat with the tail, he can bat higher up the order, and he can switch gears effortlessly. But his biggest strengths are his maturity and mindset.”

And those strengths, Watekar says, were developed through financial grind at the Reddy household. Reddy’s father Mutyalu worked for the public sector company Hindustan Zinc in Vizag but the family ran into crisis when he left his job after being transferred to Rajasthan. Mutyalu Reddy chose to resign as he felt displacing his son would affect his cricket growth.

Nitish was around 12 then.

In an earlier interview to ESPNCricinfo, Nitish recounts the repercussions of his father losing his job and then his money after borrowers “cheated”. “Our relatives said a lot of things to him. He was repeatedly humiliated. I knew he had quit his job because he wanted me to play in Vizag. That’s when I got really serious about the game. It became my purpose,” Reddy said. He says in that interview that helping his father regain his lost standing became an obsessive pursuit.

Watekar agrees. “The father and son are very close, and Mutyalu has sacrificed a lot for Nitish,” he says. The coach remembers many heart-to-heart chats with Mutyalu where the latter would often break down.

“He was under severe financial stress but was determined to not let Nitish’s cricket suffer. At that stage, his only dream was to get Nitish to play Ranji Trophy,” said Watekar, who coached the youngster twice daily at his academy till he turned 16.

With no job in hand, Mutyalu was unable to afford even a cricket kit or academy fee, and so Watekar didn’t charge him for the three years Nitish trained under him.

“I have got my reward now,” he says. “Nitish was so driven and passionate that it would have been criminal to kill his dream because of fees. I remember an instance when his dad told me he can’t afford a bat for Nitish, so I gave him mine. He went on to score 441 runs in an innings with that. I am sure he has preserved that willow.”

That 2017-18 Vijay Merchant Trophy was the first time people took note of Reddy, when he followed a triple ton with the 345-ball quadruple against Nagaland with the borrowed bat. His 1237 runs that year at an average of 176.41 remains the highest tally in the tournament’s history, earning him BCCI’s award for the best U-16 cricketer that season.

“That was the first time someone from Andhra won that award, but more than that, Nitish was excited at the prospect of being in the same room as Virat Kohli,” said Watekar. While Reddy could not get close to his idol on the awards night, he did earn a bigger reward six years later – getting the Test cap from Kohli.

During the ongoing series, Watekar has been in regular touch with Reddy, nudging him to stay focussed. “He is not the one to give away too many chances, both on and off the field. When he made a couple of 40s, I just told him that a big one is due. At that stage, that’s all that one needs.”

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