Team India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy shared about his cricketing journey, saying that watching his father’s financial struggle motivated him to take cricket seriously as well. He shared this ahead of the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 Test, which is a day-night affair in Adelaide, starting Friday, December 6. He hails from Andhra and faced many economic problems growing up as well. Reddy revealed that he wasn’t serious about cricket until one day he saw his father cry to make ends meet financially as well. However, his father sacrificed his job to make his son a cricketer.

In a video shared by the bcci.tv, Nitish Reddy said, “To be honest, I was not serious when I was young. My father left his job for me and there has been a lot of sacrifice behind my story. One day, I saw him crying because of financial problems we were facing and I was like this is not how you can be that my father made the sacrifices and you play cricket just for fun. At that time, I became serious and I got the growth, I worked hard and it paid off.”

“Everyone said, ‘Mutyala Reddy, you made your son go this far’. As a son of a middle-class family, I am so proud that my father is so happy now and I gave my first jersey to him, where I saw happiness in his face and felt immensely proud,” Reddy again added.

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The Andhra all-rounder also stated that turning to senior batter KL Rahul in the Indian dressing room for any advice. He also said that speaking to the wicketkeeper-batter helped him calm his nerves in the debut Test as well.

“I was a bit nervous at first on how I will interact with players, who I have seen on TV while growing up,” Nitish Kumar Reddy continued. “If I face any problem regarding anything, I just want to go and talk to KL bhai. I somehow feel that good vibes from him like whatever suggestion he gives it works for me.”

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“He said ‘Macha when you are going to the center, you feel everything is going so fast, don’t go so fast, slow down the game because my first match went in my way. I went there and everything happened in a few seconds, I didn’t know what to do.’ That really helped me and before going to bat, he gave me suggestions,” Nitish Kumar Reddy concluded.