I took my game seriously after seeing my dad...!: Nitish Reddy opens up on his transformation

The 23-year-old batsman, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, has impressed cricketing fans and critics with his performance in his debut match at Perth during the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, where he scored important 41 and 38 runs in the first and second innings.

"To be honest I was not that serious about cricket, my father left his job for me, there have been a lot of sacrifices behind my story. one day I saw him crying because of financial problems and I was like this is not how I play, my father was making sacrifices and I was playing cricket for fun," he said in a video released by BCCI on Thursday.

He said, that incident changed his life and he put in a lot of hard work to reach this place. "At that time I took it seriously and after one year I got the growth, I did the hard work."

Reddy, also showed his sublime skill during his appearances for the IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad. The young talent said he feels proud making his dad happy. "As a son I feel proud that my father is happy now," he says in the video.

He also revealed an emotional episode with his dad and said, "I gave my first jersey to him, it made me feel very proud."

Like many young cricketing fans, Nitish said he was also a Virat Kohli fan growing up. "I was a huge fan of Virat bhayya, I used to watch every match of his so he scores a hundred and celebrates. I like his celebrations."

Manifesting his debut for India, Nitish used to calculate Kohli's age so he could play alongside his idol. "I used to calculate my age so he doesn't retire at my debut for India."

Talking about his fanboy moment in the dressing room, he said, "I was a bit nervous to interact with him (Virat Kohli) at first."

"Now, being at the other end when he scored his hundred, I didn't realise I was close to my first fifty," he concluded.