Nitish unlocks pace potential: All-rounder bumps up pace

When England speedster Jofra Archer became the template for refining Nitish Kumar Reddy’s bowling action, the results were bound to be exhilarating.

Nitish has shown improved accuracy and a notable spike in his pace during the ongoing edition of IPL — from a trundler bowling at late 120 kmph to someone who can touch late 130 to early 140 clicks, his transformation with the ball has not gone unnoticed.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar recently highlighted the all-rounder’s improved bowling while explaining his inclusion in India’s squads for the upcoming one-off Test and ODI series against Afghanistan.

“We have seen a lot of progress over the last few months with regards to his bowling. He will be a critical part of our team if he keeps developing, especially leading to the 2027 ODI WC,” Agarkar had said, indicating that Nitish is not merely a like-for-like backup option for Hardik Pandya. Nitish’s transformation will certainly add a lot more teeth to India’s bowling attack and how has he done it?

“It’s the understanding that fast bowling is more about the brain than muscle and the brain can be trained quickly by waking it up. Nitish was a bit asleep in his bowling earlier. All I did was just to wake him up by training methods that he hadn’t done before,” Steffan Jones, a renowned pace bowling coach from England, told PTI.

So, what were those training methods?

“It was a seven-day session and skill requires frequency of practice. So, we made sure that every ball he bowled was flat out. We minimised the fatigue, because when you’re tired, you’re not working on speed. But it was multiple exposures of moving quickly, of bowling quickly,” said Jones.

“That was the training - lots of bowling with heavy and light balls, I also kept Varun Aaron (SRH bowling coach) in the loop with all of it because I coached Varun as well for three weeks during his playing days.”

Jones, who earlier worked with Rajasthan Royals as bowling coach, said some essential tweaks were to be made in Nitish’s action and run-up to gain the optimum results.

“Based on the data I did with him on the Pitchwolf app, which is called a 1080 sprint, I told him that he needs to run in faster, he needs to run in from further back, because he’s a hip-dominant bowler, and relies on linear momentum from his run-up.

“He needed to run in straighter, not on a curve, and then we improved his back foot contact to get him off back foot quickly, which in turn has meant he’s now blocking better on his front leg, which doesn’t collapse as much,” explained the Englishman.

Jones said he used Archer’s action as a case in point to bring more balance to Nitish’s delivery posture.

“The big one was his bowling circle, if you notice how he now brings his arm up high, and I told him he needs to bowl more like Archer. So, he now brings the ball up past his head, which creates a larger bowling circle, and it’s called a centripetal acceleration. He now has a bigger lever in his bowling arm.

“All I did was unlock the physical potential, because he’s a fabulous athlete, and then sort of tinkered with his bowling action to allow him to use his physical capacity better.”

Looking for a long-term association with Nitish, Jones said the significant bump in pace will help the Andhra cricketer to be more effective across formats.

“Ultimately, that’s why I search for speed in all my fast bowlers, because speed provides you more opportunity, it gives you more room to express yourself, it gives you variations, more effectiveness.

“So, with added speed now, he will become a really effective all-rounder for India, and I think he could lead the world as an all-rounder, because already his batting is very talented, and now bowling at 140, he can be invaluable to any team,” he noted.

Accidental association: Jones said a casual query on his Instagram inbox from Nitish’s manager started his association with the Indian cricketer.

“It was actually because I’ve got a high social media profile on Instagram. Sometimes there’re two sort of messages, you get the main message and then there’s another group of messages, which is hidden. Once a week, I go into that and there was his agent’s message.

“He asked if I would help Nitish prepare for the IPL and he wanted three weeks. But unfortunately, I was on my way to South Africa to launch my academy. So, took a one-week detour. It clearly worked and I loved it. It was a good start of a new chapter for me and I’m glad that I answered that message really.

“I just spoke to Nitish (on Wednesday) because he’s been a bit tired the last two games. So, we’ve changed his training a bit, and so it’s about maintaining continued support. I will catch up with him again, hopefully, when he’s in England. But this is a long-term partnership now,” Jones signed off.