Captain, coach gave me licence to play fearless cricket: Nitish Reddy

PTI, Oct 10, 2024, 8:39 AM IST

Promising India all-rounder Nitish Reddy, who made a splash with both bat and ball in only his second T20I, on Wednesday credited the team for giving him the licence to play fearless cricket.

The 21-year-old Andhra man smashed a 34-ball 74 to help India post an imposing 221/9 in the second T20I against Bangladesh here.

Later he shone with the ball with his medium-pace bowling and claimed 2/23 as Bangladesh were restricted to 135/9.

India thus took an unassailable 2-0 lead going into the final T20I in Hyderabad on October 12.

“It feels great to represent India, feel so proud about this moment. Grateful for everything. I should give credit to captain and coach. They gave me the licence to play fearless cricket,” Reddy said at the post-match interaction.

Reddy got two reprieves early on but grew in confidence after hitting a six off a free-hit thanks to a no-ball by Mahmudullah.

“I took my time initially, but after that no-ball everything went in my favour. It feels great to play for the Indian team. I want to continue in this same way. Want to keep repeat such good performances.”

India got off to a jittery start and were reeling at 41/3 inside power-play and skipper Suryakumar Yadav said it helped them test their middle-order batters.

“I wanted that situation, wanted my batters (5,6,7) in that situation. Happy for both (Rinku Singh and Nitish) of them,” Yadav said on the 108-run fourth wicket partnership between Rinku (53) and Nitish.

“They batted exactly the way I wanted. You got to go out there and express. The message has been loud and clear – do what you do in the nets, and franchises. Just the jersey changes, rest remaining remains the same.

“I wanted to see what different bowlers can do in different situations. Can they give me the difficult overs. Sometimes Hardik won’t bowl, sometimes Washington Sundar won’t bowl. I wanted to see what the other guys had in store, really happy with it. It was his (Nitish) day, I thought let him enjoy and make it large.”