Nitish Reddy On Playing Alongside Childhood Hero Virat Kohli

The Indian all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy made his Test debut against Australia in the opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth

This year proved to be the best for him in his career; after getting the limelight in the IPL 2024, he made his debut in T20I for India against Bangladesh and now in Tests

His Test debut was a memorable one as India won the first Test by a huge margin of 295 runs, and he too contributed to this win by scoring 41 runs in the first innings and remaining 38 not out in the second innings, along with a wicket

The 21-year-old received his debut cap from his idol, Virat Kohli, which was like a dream-come-true moment for him.

Reddy was at the crease when Kohli scored his 81^st international century

He came a long way from taking a selfie with Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma at the 2018 BCCI awards to sharing the crease with him

Reddy said that from childhood he was a big fan of Virat Kohli and used to watch every match of his

“This was a safety photo; at the time, he (Virat Kohli) was so famous. I felt that if I don’t get a photo chance, let’s take a picture now. It reminds me of my childhood dreams. From childhood, I was a huge fan of Virat Bhaiya. I used to watch every match of his. I liked his celebration a lot—at that time, I used to calculate my age so as to see if he wouldn’t retire when I made my debut for India.”

Further, he said that now playing with him and watching him from close to scoring a century is a delight

“Now playing with him, I was watching him close to ten runs, then five runs, and I was thinking, he’s close to getting his hundred. Even, I didn’t realize that I was close to getting my fifty—it would be my first fifty in Tests if I scored 12 runs. I was so pumped up when he got his 81st hundred, and it was a great moment to see.”