Nitish Kumar Reddy surprised quite a few fans with his bold remark on preferring white-ball formats to the red-ball format. Ahead of IPL 2026, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) all-rounder was asked the formats that he preferred. His answers, despite a warning from SRH captain Ishan Kishan, were crystal clear. NKR simply preferred T20s and ODIs over Tests. However, it is pertinent to point out that Nitish has been seen as an integral part of India’s Test setup over the last two years.
Nitish Reddy picks T20s, ODIs over Tests
At an interaction involving various members of the SRH team, Nitish was posed with the question of what would he pick between T20s and Tests, followed by a question on T20s or ODIs. On both occasions, he picked T20s and ODIs respectively. On picking T20s over Tests, SRH captain Kishan interrupted him and told the all-rounder that he was a part of the Test team and that the selectors were listening, and so he should say Tests. Next, NKR opted to bat in the powerplay rather in the death overs, only for the SRH captain to point out that he was batting at number 6 and therefore it was impossible for him to bat in the first six overs.
After a remarkable season in IPL 2024, Nitish Reddy was fast-tracked to the Indian team, making his T20I debut first in October 2024 following which he made his first Test appearance against Australia in November 2024. Since then, he has been a regular part of the Test team, being the preferred all-rounder, a like-for-like replacement for Hardik Pandya. NKR has made more impact in red-ball cricket than in white-ball formats for India, with 396 runs and 8 wickets in Tests, as opposed to 100 runs in ODIs, and 90 runs and 3 wickets in T20Is.
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