From injury setbacks to IPL 2026 star: Nitish Kumar Reddy opens up on ‘Special Person’ who helped him regain rhythm

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s impressive all-round show against KKR shows he is slowly returning to his best. The young all-rounder credits a “special person” for helping him regain his bowling rhythm and looks ready to play a bigger role for SRH and India in the future.

The 22-year-old, seen as a potential successor to Hardik Pandya, has struggled with fitness issues over the past year, including a neck spasm and a left quadriceps injury that caused him to miss key games before the 2026 T20 World Cup.

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“It’s always been a point that I wanted to work on my bowling, but it’s just the injuries which I have gone through last year, I was not pretty sure that I didn’t get the time to work on myself,” Reddy said after being named player-of-the-match in SRH’s win over Kolkata Knight Riders.

“But thankfully, I got a little bit of time for myself before the season and yeah, I did pretty good in one week training with a specific person. So, that really helped and makes sense whatever he had said to me. So, it’s going good now.”

When asked about the identity of that “special person”, the soft-spoken all-rounder smiled and said: “I will do that later on.”

Reddy’s all-round impact in big win

Reddy’s hard work paid off on Thursday as he delivered a fine all-round performance – scoring 39 off 24 balls and taking 2/17 from his two overs – to help SRH thrash Kolkata Knight Riders by 65 runs and register their first win of the season.

Coming in at a tricky stage with SRH at 118/4, Reddy formed a crucial 82-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Heinrich Klaasen (52), steadying the innings after a strong start from Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma.

With the ball, he picked up two important wickets, including KKR vice-captain Rinku Singh with a well-executed slower ball.

“It’s just when I batted, I honestly thought that wicket is a bit too paced because when bowlers try to bowl slow bouncers, sometimes it’s sticking and sometimes it’s just rushing to the batsman.

“So, I thought why not give it a try for the slower ones and that’s what I actually did and I got Rinku’s wicket because it actually rushed to the bat and that’s when I got the edge. It’s just one of my strengths, the slower one. So, I just utilised that one,” he said.

SRH’s bowling strategy

Reddy also explained how SRH adjusted their bowling plans early, bringing in spinners after the pacers leaked runs in the powerplay.

“Because KKR bowlers who have bowled the seamers just leaked a little bit of runs in the opening 6 overs, so, we thought why not spinners? The wicket is too paced and we thought that if it grips a little bit for the spinners, it will go well and you can see Harsh got the wicket of Finn Allen. So, that’s what the process has been.

“You have to respect the conditions and you have to change your plans according to the wicket. So, that’s what Ishan has done,” he said.