Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has showered praise on rookie all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy after he scored a magnificent century against Australia in the fourth Test of the series at the MCG. India was struggling at 221-7 in the first innings after Australia posted a par score of 474 runs on the board.

However, Reddy scored a brilliant knock of 114 runs off 189 balls, which was his maiden Test century, to keep India alive in the contest. Reddy added a crucial alliance of 127 runs with Washington Sundar, who scored an imperative knock of 50 runs.

Gavaskar acknowledged that Reddy is still a work-in-progress in his bowling but looks better as a batter than Hardik Pandya when the latter had come into Test cricket.

Gavaskar wrote for Sportstar, “Ever since the unavailability of Hardik Pandya for Test cricket, India has been looking for an all-rounder who can bowl medium pace and bat as well. Reddy’s bowling is still a work in progress, but as a batter, he is definitely better than Pandya was around the same time.”

“In Melbourne, When India were looking down the barrel, he came through the fire with an outstanding century that has cemented his place in the team for a long time to come,” he added.

The Little Master gave credit to chief selector Ajit Agarkar for backing Nitish Kumar Reddy despite less first-class experience.

“The Melbourne Test brought to the fore one of the brightest young stars in Indian cricket, Nitish Kumar Reddy. He came to the attention of the Indian cricket fans with his performances for the Hyderabad franchise in the IPL, and while he had not done much at the first-class level, it’s a credit to Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors to have seen enough to pitchfork him into the Test arena.”

Reddy has scored 294 runs in four Test matches against Australia at an average of 49 and he is currently the third highest run-getter in the series. The fifth and final Test match between Australia and India will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3 onwards.