Nitish Kumar Reddy isn’t bothering much about the IPL 2025 retention and whether he’ll be on Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) list of retained players ahead of the IPL mega auction. Nitish is currently in Australia, preparing for a match against Australia A. Included in India’s A squad, the all-rounder will face Nathan McSweeney’s side on the same day as the deadline for retention, October 31.
The all-rounder had impressed in the IPL 2024 and played well against Bangladesh earlier in the month. However, his first-class exploits aren’t so great yet. His bowling has been fine, but with the willow, Nitish has massively underperformed.
Nitish Reddy readying himself for red-ball
With the possibility of raking around Rs 11 crore and getting to be SRH‘s third retention, the all-rounder has all his focus on playing for India A and trying to make a play for the national side, which reaches the shores of Australia on November 10-11 for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Asking about where his focus will be, Nitish Reddy told Hindustan Times, “To be honest, my focus is still in India A. I don’t want to divert my focus because red ball needs a lot of focus. You need to be determined for this thing. I don’t want to shift my focus to the auction process and retention process. I just want to keep it simple, follow my red-ball routine and do everything that needs to be done.“
Why SRH should retain Nitish Reddy
As finalists of the IPL 2024 season, SRH won’t have an easy time choosing their retentions. Nitish would have been a confirmed pick had he remained uncapped, but now that he’s debuted for India, SRH will have to spend a minimum of Rs 11 crore on him. However, Sunrisers might still end up paying that sum for him. Barring Hardik Pandya, there isn’t a high-quality pace-bowling Indian all-rounder. Nitish is the closest to him, and letting him slip away might come to haunt SRH back.
India A squad for Australia
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (wk), Abishek Porel (wk), Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian
India A’s schedule
- 1st 4-day match: October 31-November 3 at the Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay
- 2nd 4-day match: November 7-November 10 at the MCG, Melbourne
- 3-day intra-squad match: November 15-17 at the WACA, Perth
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