India’s young gun Nitish Reddy lauded head coach Gautam Gambhir for helping him build his confidence as a bowler in the ongoing T20I series against Bangladesh. Reddy also became the first Indian player to have made 70 or more and then scalp two wickets in a T20I. The star all-rounder spoke about the advice he got from India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir in New Delhi.
Nitish who grabbed the Player of the Match award while playing his second T20I, displayed his all-rounder abilities on the field. He came out to bat at No. 4 when India suffered two early blows. Nitish then went on to collect 74 off just 34 balls, hitting seven sixes and four boundaries. He also built a crucial stand of 108 runs with Rinku Singh for the fourth wicket, helping India make a mammoth total of 221.
“To be honest, I should thank Gautam sir for this. He gave me a lot of confidence. He told me to believe in my bowling and told me ‘when you are bowling, you should think like a bowler. You should not think you are a batter who can bowl, you should consider yourself a bowler’. That somehow boosted me. I would like to thank Gautam for this,” Nitish Reddy said in a video posted by the BCCI.
Earlier, in the IPL 2024, Reddy played for SunRisers Hyderabad where he collected 303 runs with the help of two fifties at a strike rate of 140. He also picked up three wickets.
India squad for Bangladesh T20 series: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, JItesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav
Bangladesh squad for India T20 series: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Parvez Hossain Emon, Tawhid Hridoy, Mahmud Ullah, Litton Kumer Das, Jaker Ali Anik, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Rakibul Hasan.