Nitish Kumar Reddy was player of the match in SunRisers Hyderabad’s first win of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) due to his all-round performance. Reddy’s prowess with the bat is something that has been seen by Indian fans across formats but batting great Sunil Gavaskar feels that his performance with the ball on Thursday augurs well for his international career as well and not just SRH.
“He is definitely bowling quicker now and has clearly added a bit more pace,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports. “You can see better rhythm and flow in his action as well. That often happens when a player is fully fit and stronger physically.”
Reddy scored 39 off 24 balls as SunRisers Hyderabad put up a score of 226/8. He then returned figures of 2/17 as SRH stifled the Kolkata Knight Riders batters for any kind of momentum throughout their chases. KKR folded for 161 runs in 16 overs, thus giving SRH a big 65-run win. It was a big comeback for SRH who had lost their first match to RCB by six wickets despite compiling a score of 201 for the loss of nine wickets.
Reddy said that he had put some work into his bowling during the off season. Gavaskar noted that the improved fitness reflected in the fact that he was getting the ball to bounce more. “He was praising his physical trainer and conditioning work, and that is a big positive. He’s also getting the ball to bounce a little more, which we saw in the first game as well. That’s very encouraging news for India,” Gavaskar said.
Reddy said that he had always wanted to work on improving his bowling but injuries hampered his progress last year. “I wanted to work on my bowling, but it’s just the injuries which I went through last year. Thankfully, I got a little bit of time before the season and I did pretty good in one week of training with a specific person. That really helped and (it) made sense whatever he said to me,” he said.
