Despite significant improvements in his bowling, Reddy says he remains a work in progress

DHARAMSALA: Nitish Kumar Reddy's recent work on his bowling action and run-up has paid dividends and that improvement was visible in India's ODI series opener against Afghanistan here.

Having worked with England-based coach Steffan Jones ahead of the IPL, Reddy has emerged as a much improved bowler -- both on the pace and accuracy front.

India's leading all-rounder Hardik Pandya is injury-prone and therefore, the team management is grooming Reddy for life after Hardik with an eye on the 2027 ODI World Cup.

There was never any doubt over Reddy's batting and now he is also delivering with the ball. In the rain-hit ODI here on Saturday, the Vizag-born cricketer got rid of a rampaging Rahmanullah Gurbaz with a fine yorker.

Unlike the IPL, international cricket also allowed him to settle scores against Gurbaz who smashed the Indian all-rounder for a six on his first ball.

Talking about the use of the yorker, Reddy said he uses the ball both as an attacking and defensive option. Gurbaz was in menacing touch and someone had to stop him.

"I would say because I was expecting this situation will come at any point, I mean, I was not expecting in ODIs but at least in T20s like IPL and all, because (as) impact player I was not able to complete four overs I would say. Some matches I was able to bowl two overs, but there will be some matches where I'll be bowling four overs, so I was preparing myself.

“...I shouldn't be clueless when the captain gives me the ball, I have to have some plan, so if it's not regularly not bowling in matches, at least I would do my stuff in practice so that I'll be ready at the right time," he said.

The 23-year-old also briefly paused the press conference to take a call from his mother. Excusing himself, he answered the phone and politely asked her to wait five minutes while he finished speaking to reporters.

Impact Player rule doesn’t encourage comebacks as a bowler

Reddy bowled four overs in different stages of the rain-hit game against Afghanistan but in the IPL, he did not get to regularly bowl his full quota. He too joined a bunch of players in criticising the Impact Player concept in the IPL.

"For all-rounders, yeah, it is a little bit difficult because we always expect we'll get four overs and, even at first, one or two overs if you get beaten up, or at least there will be two overs.

"...you can come back and you can give your effort that it used to be like that, but now if you bowl one or two overs bad and that's your, maybe that's your end of the tournament also.

"For some all-rounders or for some bowlers, I would say when there is chance for a comeback, like after one over you have to come back and show up yourself, that's where a players' mindset is determined and, that's when comeback says everything.

“I believe, bowlers should get four overs and all-rounders should get four overs, at least they need to get that experience,” said Reddy.

Reddy on technical changes to his bowling and how he remains a work in progress

Reddy has considerably improved on his pace and accuracy of late but by his own admission he remains a work in progress.

"I mean, I figured out that I'm a front-on bowler and working on the stride lengths which I wanted to go much more quicker on the run-up. So it changed a little bit in my bowling action. It's coming good now and hopefully there are some more improvements which I have to do and hopefully I'll do in coming days.

On the work done with Jones, he added: “I mean, it's just seven days I have worked with him. It's basically, we haven't done a lot of work, but it's just basically what we want to achieve in the coming days.

"That's what we have discussed and we have worked on that and I have learnt some points where I need to change a little bit in my specific bowling, so we're working on it."