Young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was selected for the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test match against Australia in Perth's Optus Stadium, on November 22 (Friday), making him one of the most recent Indian cricket players to make his Test debut. He along with KKR pacer Harshit Rana got their caps ahead of the big match. The 21-year-old Reddy made his debut under Jasprit Bumrah, who is leading India in Rohit Sharma's absence and became India's 315th cap in the game's longest format.
Nitish Reddy's young career
In his nascent career, the medium-pacer has participated in 23 first-class matches, taking 56 wickets at an average of 26.98 and amassing 779 runs at 21.05, including two fifties and a century. Even though Nitish played as a bowling all-rounder for Andhra, he gained a name for himself as a batter for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2024 Indian Premier League edition. Throughout the competition, he got three wickets and amassed 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92. In the T20I series against Bangladesh, he made his debut for his country by taking two wickets and scoring a game-winning 74 off 34 balls.
"We are going to bat first, looks like a good wicket. Very confident with our preparation. We played a Test match here in 2018 so we know what to expect. The wicket gets quicker. Nitish makes his debut. We have 4 quicks and Washi is the lone spinner," said Bumrah during toss while announcing Reddy's debut
At the time of writing India have already lost the wicket of young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal who departed without opening his account in his very first Test match on Australian soil. He fell victim to veteran Mitchell Starc in the 13th ball of the match itself.
IND vs AUS Playing XIs
India: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
