What is wrong with Nitish Kumar Reddy, SRH's middle-order bedrock?

Sitting in the opposing corner during last year's Boxing Day Test match, watching Nitish Kumar Reddy take down Australian pacers and spinners with equal contempt, Pat Cummins and Daniel Vettori would have been counting days before the Indian all-rounder would join hands with them for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI:

Coming from the coastal town of Visakhapatnam, Reddy's inspirational story of tiding over financial strife to score his maiden Test hundred at the Melbourne Cricket Ground acquired cult status. He even received a hero's welcome after the Australian tour — an open jeep parade through the streets of his home town. To build on his new-found fandom, the broadcasters began branding IPL 2025's Telugu coverage around NKR, the local hero.

Eight matches into the season, Reddy is yet to live up to the hype.

The all-rounder aggregates 133 runs in 7 innings, at an average of 19 and SR of 110. With a top score of 32, Reddy hasn't given himself any opportunity to bring out the stylized gesture from Allu Arjun's character 'Pushpa' which he so famously displayed on reaching his first Test fifty in Melbourne.

So, what's really going wrong for NKR?