Nitish Kumar Reddy became the first Indian to score a century in Australia from no.8 position.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was the toast of the Indian first innings in the ongoing 4th BGT 2024 Test in Melbourne against Australia. India ended day 3 on 358/9 due to bad light and rain in reply to Australia’s 474.
India resumed their innings on day 3 at 164/5, but Australia hit early. Rishabh Pant got out for 24 runs trying to play one of his audacious shots off Scott Boland, and Nathan Lyon had Ravindra Jadeja out LBW for 17 runs.
This brought Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar out in the middle at India 221/7, and the duo added 127 important runs for the 8th wicket. Sundar scored 50 in 162 balls with one four to his name, while Nitish Kumar Reddy went on to score his maiden Test century with his father in attendance.
Reddy scored 105* in 176 balls with 10 fours and 1 six and remained unbeaten as day three ended due to bad light.
Before this match began, a lot of speculation was there on India’s XI. Many experts and ex-cricketers shared their views on who should be excluded and who should be included in the Indian XI.
Sanjay Manjrekar had also shared his views on social media and questioned whether Nitish Kumar Reddy, who had been scoring important runs for India lower down the order, should be dropped from the XI to give India better balance or not.
“Will leaving Reddy out give India better balance?”- Sanjay Manjrekar shared his views on ESPNCricinfo.
In response to this, after Nitish Kumar Reddy scored a brilliant hundred in MCG, Puma Cricket quoted Manjrekar’s post on X and shared Nitish’s photo with a finger on his lips, indicating the ex-cricketer to shut up.