He is 16-year-old and his batting prowess has mesmerised many in cricketing circles. K. Nitish Kumar Reddy has been consistent with willow and hammered 441 runs against Nagaland in the Vijay Merchant inter-State tournament. His insatiable hunger for scoring runs seems going on unabated. His incredible run of form in the last season saw him finish as the leading run-getter and fetched him the BCCI ‘Best Cricketer in the Under -16’ award for the season 2017-2018.

BCCI presented him the award along with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh and a Trophy named after Jagmohan Dalmiya at its annual presentation ceremony in Bangalore. Nitish is the first player of Andhra Cricket Association who got the BCCI award.

Speaking to The Hindu Nitish said he was very much thrilled and excited to receive the BCCI award. Indian skipper Virat Kohli was his role model and his goal was to beat the records set by Kohli, the young batting sensation from the city said.

Nitish expressed confidence that he would continue his performance in u-19 selections. He said ACA academies were very much helpful to the budding cricketers like him.

“As a citizen of Visakhapatnam we are proud of him,” says VDCA general secretary K. Parthasaradhi. He said Nitish had played for VDCA in under-12 and u-14 matches and will don national colours and sure will become an all-rounder.

Nitish began playing cricket with plastic bat at the age of five years and was a regular to Hindustan Zinc grounds to watch seniors playing cricket. The little maestro received good support from his father K. Mutyala Reddy, who quit job in Hindustan Zinc when he was transferred to Udaipur, to lend helping hand to Nitish to continue his dream campaign in cricket. He took Nitish to VDCA camps where coaches Kumara Swamy, Krishna Rao and Watekar nurtured him in batting and bowling.

Proud moment

An elated Mutyala Reddy told The Hindu that he was very happy and it was a proud moment as his son got the top award of BCCI. Mr. Reddy thanked VDCA, ACA and BCCI for the support extended to Nitish.

MSK Prasad spotted Nitish during u-12 and u-14 matches and picked him up for training at ACA Academy at Kadapa, where coaches Madhusudhana Reddy and Srinivas Rao further improvised his batting and bowling skills, Mr. Reddy said. “Nitish’s mother also encouraged him to pursue cricketing skills and now We are happy that he was bringing laurels both to the family and the city. We owe a lot to selection committee chairman MSK Prasad,” he said

Nitish made his maiden century in u-14 MSK Prasad tournament against Kurnool. Since then runs flowed from his bat. He remained unbeaten with 207 against Karnataka in Vijay Merchant Trophy in 2007.

His success run with both bat and ball continued.

During 2017-18 season Nitish scored 811 runs in ACA inter-district matches and 1237 runs all India inter-State matches and took 27 wickets in the inter district and , 26wickets in the inter-State matches.

Had he been given a chance to play in the under -19 age group inter-State matches, probably Nitish would have represented the country in the under -19 age group, said D.S. Varma, vice-president of VDCA.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by G. Janardhana Rao / Visakhapatnam – July 06th, 2018