Reddy arrives with a bang and a 'promise of more'

The no-ball siren in T20 cricket is a dreaded sound for the fielding team. It was no different on Wednesday when Mahmudullah overstepped against India during the second T20I in Delhi.

Until then, Bangladesh had India in a spot of bother. Bowling first on a pitch that looked full of runs but was initially two-paced, they reduced the home side to 41 for 3 in the sixth over. Nitish Kumar Reddy, playing only his second T20I, and Rinku Singh, batting for India for the first time since July, were the two batters at the crease.

India's position looked even more precarious considering that Delhi has been a high-scoring venue of late. In IPL 2024, teams batting first scored over 200 in all five games played here.

Reddy was batting on a run-a-ball 13 when the no-ball siren went off. But before proceeding, let us take a moment to look at his journey till here.

Reddy, 21, was fast-tracked into the India side after a successful IPL 2024, where he scored 303 runs at a strike rate of 142.92 and took three wickets with his nippy seam bowling. He was included in the squad for the five-match T20I series in Zimbabwe before a hernia injury forced him to withdraw.

He finally made his debut in the first match of the current series, in Gwalior. Apart from the fact that that was his debut, and India won, it was not a particularly memorable outing for Reddy. He went for 17 in his two wicketless overs and then was the only India batter to strike at less than 150 - he scored 16 not out off 15 balls.

Despite having Riyan Parag in the side, who also bats at No. 4 in the IPL, the team management backed Reddy in that position for the second successive game. But once again, things were not looking rosy. He was yet to open his account when Suryakumar Yadav punched one towards him at the non-striker's end. Reddy could not get out of the way and got hit on the right shoulder. He winced in pain but luckily it was not bad enough to force him off the field.

Reddy's first two scoring shots, a single and a four, did not come off the middle of the bat either. When he was on 5, Tanzim Hasan Sakib hurried him with a short ball. Reddy went for the pull, only to glove it down the leg side. Fortune once again smiled on him as Litton Das dropped the chance.

Even against the spin of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mahmudullah, Reddy was not entirely comfortable. "But when the no-ball came, I felt that was my time," he said later.

Reddy launched the free hit over long-on for a six. On the very next ball, he survived a close lbw call, but when Mahmudullah bowled one short and wide outside off, he slapped it through covers for four. There was no looking back after that.

In the next over, Reddy hit legspinner Rishad Hossain for two back-to-back sixes. From 51 for 3 after seven overs, Reddy and Rinku took India past 100 by the tenth.

After his fifty, which took only 27 balls, Reddy accelerated further and smashed Mehidy for three sixes and a four in one over. Off the last 21 balls he faced, he ransacked 61 runs. And it was not blind hitting. When Mehidy bowled one down the leg side, Reddy stayed put in his position to avail a wide.

In all, Reddy hit seven sixes. His modus operandi was more or less the same for every one of them: clear the front leg and target the arc between long-off and deep midwicket. However, his most impressive shot was not a six but a four. In that bumper over, Mehidy fired one in the blockhole from around the wicket. Reddy managed to get under it, and, using his bottom hand, smacked it through midwicket. He hardly got any elevation but such was the power that it went for a one-bounce four.

By the time Reddy got out, for 74 off 34, India were 149 in 13.3 overs, all set for a 200-plus total.

He was not done yet, though. When Bangladesh came out to bat, Suryakumar handed him the new ball. "It was his day, so I felt let him enjoy and make it large," Suryakumar said of the decision.

Reddy bowled two tidy overs upfront and then returned to pick up two wickets at the death to finish with figures of 2 for 23 from four overs. In between, he nailed an underarm direct hit after running in from covers but Jaker Ali was in. Reddy was named the Player of the Match for his all-round show.

"It feels great representing India; I want to live in this moment," he said at the post-match presentation. "I should give credit to the captain and the coach [Gautam Gambhir]. They asked me to bat in the same aggressive way I did in the IPL. I want to give a promise that I can do more than this."

For many years, Hardik Pandya has been the only world-class seam-bowling allrounder in India. Whenever he got injured, India found themselves in a pickle. They tried Venkatesh Iyer and Shivam Dube; neither could deliver with both bat and ball.

In that context, Reddy's performance becomes even more important. But this is just a start, with a long road ahead.