Nitish reveals how idol Kohli`s shoes played a role in his iconic BGT century

Ahead of IPL 2025, Nitish Kumar Reddy sat down with PUMA India for an exclusive chat to reflect on his meteoric rise—from his record-breaking Border-Gavaskar Trophy century to the lighthearted dressing room banter that earned him a special gift from Virat Kohli, now forever tied to that historic innings.

A lifelong fan of Kohli, the PUMA athlete couldn’t resist when the cricket legend offered up a prized pair of his shoes. Wearing them at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Nitish scripted history, becoming the first Indian batter to score a Test century in Australia from No. 8—the third-youngest Indian centurion in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar & Rishabh Pant—and setting the record for the most sixes by an Indian in a Test series there.

“Back in the locker room, he (Kohli) once asked Sarfaraz (Khan), ‘Sarfu, tera size kya hai?’ (Sarfaraz, what’s your shoe size?), and he said, ‘Nine.’ Then he turned to me, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I have to guess this correctly,’ because even if they weren’t my size, I really wanted his shoes. I said, ‘10,’ and he gave them to me. In the next match, I wore those shoes and scored a hundred!”  Reddy shared in the hour-long podcast, also revealing that he later got both his bat and those shoes signed by Kohli.

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With the key cricket season approaching, Nitish has cemented himself as one of cricket’s brightest young talents. He played a key role in his team’s IPL final run last season, scoring 303 runs and taking three wickets under Pat Cummins’ “dedicated and calm” leadership. Determined to become a top all-rounder, Nitish has also sought advice from Hardik Pandya while impressing on his Bangladesh debut before his BGT heroics.

In this rare open-hearted chat with sports host Arjun Pandit at PUMA India headquarters in Bengaluru, Nitish revealed that amidst the celebrations of his unforgettable Melbourne century, he found himself searching for just two people. “Everyone in the dressing room came up and congratulated me, but I was just looking for one guy—hoping he’d come and talk to me. When Virat bhai (Kohli) finally walked up and told me I had played a wonderful game, that moment itself was special for me. I was also scanning the stands for my father but couldn’t find him. Later, I saw on the screen that he was crying.”

Nitish credited both his father and uncle for shaping his cricketing journey, sharing that they were in the stands that day, watching him salute the tricolour in front of 80,000 roaring fans.

Beyond the big moments, Nitish also shared a lighter side of his time at Down Under, recalling how his franchise teammate Travis Head tried to throw him off with some playful sledging. “Travis came up to me and said, ‘Nitish, where are you going to party tonight?’—knowing fully well that I wouldn’t. Then he went on, ‘Australia is such a great place. Melbourne is an amazing city, you have to go out and chill.’ He was just trying to distract me. I just told him, ‘Okay, Travis, one day we’ll both go and party!’ During another match, he was fielding at short leg and warned me, ‘Nitish, if you hit me, I’ll hit you when you bowl!”

The young cricketer has also built strong camaraderie with India`s next-gen stars, having come up the ranks alongside Riyan Parag, a fellow PUMA ambassador, Abhishek Sharma, and others from U-13 to U-19 cricket. “We’ve all worked hard to get here, and it’s all paying off now. I love their energy and the way they perform,” he shared during the interview.

Off the field, the Gen Z cricketer has another passion—anime. A die-hard Naruto fan, he even collects action figures and introduced it to Abhishek Sharma. “But he (Abhishek) still calls it cartoons just to annoy me,” Nitish laughed. When Nitish is not on the pitch or debating anime, he is found unwinding with friends over intense battles on the console calling them his ultimate stressbusters.

Nitish joined PUMA India’s illustrious roster in 2024, that features sport icons PV Sindhu, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mohammed Shami, boxing champ MC Mary Kom and youngsters Riyan Parag, Richa Ghosh, Avani Lekhara, Niki Prasad, Sarabjot Singh, amongst others.

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