Nitish Reddy scored a gritty century vs Australia on Day 3 of Boxing Day Test.© AFP
Nitish Reddy’s straight drive off Scott Boland that carried him past his maiden Test hundred has convinced the Australian pacer about the young Indian batter’s potential with the bat. Reddy made an unbeaten 105 as India reached 358 for nine in their first innings, and more importantly gave the side a chance to salvage the fourth Test here. “Yeah, obviously he’s playing really nicely. Coming in down the middle, it’s a lower-order, but he’s sort of trying to put the pressure back on us. And he’s playing nicely,” Boland replied to a query from PTI after the day’s play.
“He played really well. He’s been a young guy from India who’s come through and strikes the ball really well. It looks like he’s got pretty much every shot in the book,” he added.
Boland first had a glimpse of Reddy during the Pink Ball match between India and the PM XI in Canberra.
“I played the ‘A’ game against him, the PM’s game and then a couple of Tests. You see he can score all around the ground.
“He’s obviously a very nice player and does well in the IPL and he’s doing well here in Australian conditions as well,” he noted.
Boland felt that the MCG pitch didn’t have the expected nip.
“Yeah, I think it started off with a fair bit of nip in it. I think there’s still a little bit of nip there at the moment. Not as consistent as I’d like as a bowler, but I think it’s going to be a pretty good Test match wicket.” Talking about Australia’s plan in general against the India batters, the beefy pacer replied: “Coming off that break, we tried to take them a bit wider with the ball. We obviously set a 7-2 field and tried to see if they wanted to flash their hands outside the off stump.”
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