‘Just feel like you are taking a bullet for country’: Nitish Kumar Reddy reveals Gautam Gambhir’s charged-up advice

The match began with stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah winning the toss and opting to bat. The Indian top-order’s poor form continued as opener Yashasvi Jaiswal departed for an eight-ball duck. Meanwhile, Devdutt Padikkal left for a 23-ball duck and Virat Kohli could only manage five runs off 12 balls.

Rishabh Pant (37) and debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy (41) played key knocks as India got bundled out for 150. Nitish top-scored for the day, and revealed a special advice from head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Gautam Gambhir’s advice to Nitish Kumar Reddy

Nitish was in good form for India A in the recent series vs Australia A. “Even I heard a lot about Perth and I still remember the last practice we were having and after the practice, I had a chat with Gautam Sir and he was mentioning (that) when you get any bouncers, or something like that, sharp spells, you just take it on your shoulders,” he said.

“(He said) ‘Just feel like you are taking a bullet for your country’. That really helped me a lot. Like that just boosted me up. The Perth wicket, everyone was talking like there is a good bounce in this wicket (and) when he said that thing, and I felt like (I) needed to take bullets for (my) country. That’s the best thing I have heard from Gautam Sir,” he added.

Reddy also feels that India are in an advantageous position after day 1. For the home side, Josh Hazlewood was in good bowling form and took four wickets. Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh bagged two dismissals each.

In response to India’s first innings total, Australia failed to capitalise, and reached 67/7 in 27 overs at Stumps. Alex Carey (19*) and Starc (6*) remain unbeaten for Australia. Meanwhile, Bumrah took four wickets for India, Mohammed Siraj picked two and debutant Harshit Rana scalped one dismissal.