Watch: Nitish Kumar Reddy celebrates maiden Test fifty with ...

AUS vs IND: Nitish Kumar Reddy celebrated with Allu Arjun's Pushpa move after scoring his maiden Test fifty off 81 balls in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Watch: Nitish Reddy celebrates maiden Test fifty with Pushpa signature move. Courtesy: AP

Nitish Kumar Reddy racked up his maiden Test fifty on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. On Saturday, December 28, Reddy got to his half-century off 81 balls with India under pressure. The 21-year-old Reddy has been in decent enough form for the visiting team, having chipped in with useful knocks throughout.

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In the Perth Test, Reddy made 41 and 38 not out, after which he scored 42 in the Day-Night warm-up match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. In the Adelaide Test, which India lost by 10 wickets, Nitish scored 42 and 42 to show some fight. At The Gabba in Brisbane, Nitish got out cheaply for 16, but made amends in challenging conditions at the MCG.

Reddy, in the meantime, celebrated his maiden Test fifty with the signature move of ‘Pushpa’, the Allu Arjun-starrer Telugu movie. On December 5, Pushpa 2 hit the theatres and has taken the box office by storm. The right-handed batter was delighted after completing a major landmark in his career.

Reddy, in the meantime, joined Anil Kumble in an elite list of batters. Reddy and Kumble are amongst the No.8 batters from India to have scored half-centuries in Tests on Australian soil. The others are Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Karsan Ghavri, Manoj Prabhakar, Ravi Ashwin, Dattu Phadkar, Hemu Adhikari and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Reddy came to the limelight after he performed exceptionally for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who finished as the runners-up in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. In 13 matches, he scored 303 runs from 13 matches with a top score of 76 not out, and picked up three wickets at an economy rate of 11.62. The youngster would be happy after being able to perform for India at the highest level.