What’s wrong with Nitish Kumar Reddy?  

Mumbai: Sitting in the opposing corner during last year’s Boxing Day Test match, watching Nitish Kumar Reddy take down Australian pacers and spinners with equal contempt, Pat Cummins and Daniel Vettori would have been counting days before the Indian all-rounder would join hands with them for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.

Coming from the coastal town of Visakhapatnam, Reddy’s inspirational story of tiding over financial strife to score his maiden Test hundred at the Melbourne Cricket Ground acquired cult status. He even received a hero’s welcome after the Australian tour – an open jeep parade through the streets of his home town. To build on his new-found fandom, the broadcasters began branding IPL 2025’s Telugu coverage around NKR, the local hero.

Eight matches into the season, Reddy is yet to live up to the hype.

The all-rounder aggregates 133 runs in 7 innings, at an average of 19 and SR of 110. With a top score of 32, Reddy hasn’t given himself any opportunity to bring out the stylized gesture from Allu Arjun’s character ‘Pushpa’ which he so famously displayed on reaching his first Test fifty in Melbourne.

So, what’s really going wrong for NKR?

It isn’t that he is struggling to put bat on ball. But the timing in his strokes that people would gush over, all through last year appears to have gone awry. In six of his seven dismissals, he’s gone aerial but failed to clear the field. On Tuesday against Mumbai Indians, Reddy tried to hold his shape against Deepak Chahar, but his on drive went straight into mid-on’s hands.

His strike rate has been poor against both pace and spin. Reddy isn’t usually a batter who battles strike rate concerns. Possessing a rich range of strokes, the reverse sweep is as much a part of his batting repertoire as a cover drive.

Being one of the five retained players of the franchise, Reddy was expected to be the bedrock of the middle order, batting at No 4. It begs the question if this is a case of the 21-year-old trying too hard to justify his ‘retained player’ status.

“I don’t think so,” says MSK Prasad, former India Chief selector and Reddy’s talent spotter from age-group days. “By delivering a Test hundred in Australia, he proved his mettle.”

Whether the side strain Reddy suffered after Australia has hampered his stroke play is difficult to say but it could also be that he’s struggling to accept the overly aggressive SRH batting style, which has failed more than it has succeeded.

Reddy’s failures have amplified SRH’s batting troubles; this being the season where openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head haven’t clicked, except in a couple of matches.

“That’s part of the problem,” says Prasad. “Earlier, by the time Nitish would come, the top three would have already done a lot of damage. This year, on half the occasions, he’s had to bat in the Powerplay. He’s just taking some time to adapt.”

In 2023, Reddy featured in only two matches. For all practical purposes, this is his second IPL season and he isn’t the first player to suffer second season blues. Last year was his breakthrough IPL where he managed 300–plus runs at a SR of 143. Significantly, the right-hander smashed 21 sixes last year. This year, only two maximums have come off Reddy’s blade.

Reddy’s batting woes come close to the India’s selection for the Test tour of England. Despite lack of runs, Reddy is the favourite to keep the pace bowling all-rounder’s spot for India. What with Reddy having caught the eye of head coach Gautam Gambhir, who backed him being fast tracked into Test cricket.

Reddy, however, has done no bowling in this year’s IPL. Under the Impact Player rule, Cummins hasn’t trusted Reddy to deliver even the odd over, which he would regularly bowl last year. Reddy’s only competition for England is the experienced Shardul Thakur, who has been bowling regularly for Lucknow Super Giants.

The national selectors would hope that the desire to leave a mark in lead up to India selection, will spur Reddy to a late surge in form in the second half of the IPL.