T20 World Cup 2024: Not Hardik Pandya!! Shane Watson names his favourite Indian fast-bowling all-rounder

Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has now become a fan of the young Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batting all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy after he helped his team beat the table-toppers Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a nail-biting IPL 2024 encounter on Thursday, May 2.

Watson admired Nitish after playing a dazzling knock for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 50th match of the ongoing IPL 2024 against Rajasthan Royals (RR). Watson said that Reddy is quickly becoming one of his favorite players.

The cricket expert highlighted Reddy's ability to take on the senior spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin. The young Andhra Pradesh batting all-rounder showcased his skills with a stunning innings of 76 runs off 42 balls, studded with 3 fours and 8 sixes against the Royals.

Nitish Kumar Reddy impresses Shane Watson with blazing knock vs RR

His explosive batting played a key role in SRH's thrilling one-run win over RR at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. This thrilling win earned the hosts, SRH, two valuable points and handed RR their second defeat of the season. While RR remained at the top of the IPL 2024 points table, SRH jumped to the fourth spot in the standings with 12 points.

Shane Watson was quoted as saying by Jio Cinema: “Yeah, he is becoming one of my favourite cricketers to watch for sure. For a young man to be able to exert his dominance on a spin bowling attack especially of Yuzi Chahal and Ashwin and some of the shots, in fact all of the shots that he played tonight were of a rare quality. For a young man to have that skill development at such a young age and to execute under pressure against the best bowlers in the world.”

The 20-year-old all-rounder showcased his batting prowess at the No. 4 position for SRH when he came to bat in the 6th over of the IPL 2024 clash between SRH and RR. He showed exceptional batting skills, particularly against the spinners during the middle overs of the game.

He is a very special talent: Shane Watson

After a slow start, scoring just 5 runs in his first 10 deliveries, Reddy quickly accelerated his innings, amassing 45 runs in the next 20 balls. Notably, he equaled the record for the most sixes (8) by an SRH batter in IPL history. Meanwhile, Watson lauded Nitish as a special talent and hailed him as one of the standout findings of the ongoing IPL 2024.

Watson signed off by saying, “He is a very special talent. So, like it happens with the IPL, every single year, there is always a couple of young Indian hyper-skilled cricketers that come through and burst onto the scene and that is the reason why Indian cricket has got an abundance of talent that is always gonna be found through and Nitish Reddy is one of those.”

Notably, SRH will next face the 9th-ranked Mumbai Indians (MI) led by Hardik Pandya in the ongoing IPL 2024 on May 6 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.