As Nitish Kumar Reddy completed an astonishing maiden Test ton in just his fourth Test in front of a packed crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), visuals of his father Mutyala Reddy’s tears and joy won the hearts of cricket fans around the world. Reddy’s journey has been a long one, filled with huge sacrifices from his father. But from having to see his father sacrifice his job in order to support his career, to getting his Test cap from his idol Virat Kohli, to slamming his first Test century, it has been a remarkable ride for Nitish Reddy.
The role of Mutyala Reddy in Nitish’s career has been instrumental. The senior Reddy gave up a stable job and endured financial problems just to be able to support his son’s blooming cricket career.
As his childhood coach Kumar Swamy says to The Indian Express, “Everyone wants to be a hero in their cinema but when it comes to Nitish’s story it is Mutyala who is the hero.”
Mutyala never gave up on his son’s dreams, reports The Indian Express. Even when he was informed that Nitish wasn’t good enough for cricket at district level, his father persisted and only helped Nitish improve. At the age of 16, after he had smashed more than 1,200 runs in the Vijay Merchant Trophy, dreams of playing for India and stabilising his family situation started truly being a goal for Nitish.
“To be honest, I was not that serious when I was young. My father left his job for me. There has been lots of sacrifice in my story. One day I saw him crying due to financial problems he had, and it felt like I had to do the hard work,” Reddy had told BCCI.TV.
“Your father did this sacrifice and you are just enjoying cricket by playing it for fun. So at that time, I took it seriously and suddenly in one year, I got the growth, did the hard work and it paid off,” Reddy added.
Young Nitish also had another dream – to play alongside his idol, Virat Kohli.
“When I was young, I would calculate my age to see if I could play for India while Virat Kohli is still playing,” Reddy told BCCI.TV.
As it turned out, the dream came true. Kohli presented 21-year-old Nitish his first Test cap in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25. At such a young age, his rare skilset – a fast-bowling all-rounder – saw him breakthrough into the XI. “I’m preparing myself for the Hardik Pandya role,” he had told NDTV in July.
A lesser known fact about Nitish is that he was the net bowler of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2021. But it was at Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in 2023 when Nitish truly made the big time. With inputs from the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nitish’s bowling continued to improve.
SRH saw Nitish turn from wonderkid to superstar in a couple of months, and then once again, it was his father who advised him to stick to SRH and not chase after millions in the IPL.
From a 13-year-old seemingly unfit to play district cricket to a centurion at the ‘G’, it’s been a crazy ride for Nitish Reddy.
