In the journey of 5 test match series in Australia within 55 days, the beginning of Team India was the same which everyone was afraid of. On the very first day of the first Test match in Perth, Team India got to see a scary picture of the upcoming matches of the series. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which started at the Optus Stadium, started with the flop show of Team India’s batsmen, in which new and young batsmen like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal failed completely, while experienced batsmen like Virat Kohli also proved to be a failure. At such a time, Team India was shown a path by that batsman on whose selection questions were being raised. This batsman is Nitish Kumar Reddy, who proved to be India’s number-1 batsman in the first innings.
Top order failed miserably
Team India chose to bat first in Perth, which was expected because in the last four Tests played here, Australia had won by batting first. In such a situation, Team India had also taken this decision with the same hope, but the Indian batting, which was already looking weak, turned everyone’s fears into reality. In the first session itself, Team India lost 4 wickets including Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Yashasvi and Devdutt, playing in Australia for the first time, could not even open the account while Kohli failed to understand the bounce of Perth.
KL Rahul certainly looked strong but he was given out by the umpire in a controversial manner. As expected, Rishabh Pant had taken the lead for Team India but Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar, who came to support him, could not do anything special. Then came to the crease number eight batsman Nitish Reddy, who is making his Test debut. This 21 year old batsman not only supported Pant but also showed his ability and told that his selection was not wrong. Reddy along with Pant made an important partnership of 48 runs for the 7th wicket and saved the team from collapsing within 100 runs.
Nitish showed his ability
The most special thing was Reddy’s style of batting. Before this Test, while playing for India A, he had played short innings against Australia A, in which he had hit some aggressive shots. He was also criticized for this, but his aggressive style came in handy for Team India here. Nitish used backfoot and frontfoot well. Especially the way he moved forward and hit some amazing drives against spinner Nathan Lyon, which was enough to show that he had understood the temperament of the Perth pitch in a short time. Reddy took the team to 150 runs but he himself could not complete his half-century. Reddy scored 41 runs and was out as the last batsman, but in just such a few innings, he showed a mirror to the rest of the team’s batsmen.
