Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar couldn’t hold his emotions that came out in the form of tears and a choked voice during his conversation with the parents of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who scored a famous Test century in Melbourne on Saturday.
In the fourth Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, all-rounder Reddy, who is on his maiden Test tour, hit a century (114) to help India come back after being 221 for 7 at one stage. His 127-run partnership with Washington Sundar (50) took India to 369 in their first innings in response to Australia’s 474 and restricted the home team’s lead to 105 runs.
A day later, on Sunday, Gavaskar and former India coach Ravi Shastri met Nitish Reddy’s parents and congratulated them.

“We know the sacrifices that you have made and because of that I have tears in my eyes,” said Gavaskar talking to Nitish’s father, Mutyala Reddy. “Because of you, Indian cricket now has a diamond.”
Nitish has been the find of the tour for India and has featured in all four Tests. His 114 in Melbourne has now made him India’s highest scorer (293 runs) in the series, which will conclude with the fifth and final Test in Sydney.
Nitish’s father sacrificed his job to shape up his son’s future in cricket, tiding over tough times to support his family financially.

“I know what they (Nitish’s parents) have sacrificed. Even our parents did. When parents sacrifice and their son or daughter becomes successful, then there is a sense of happiness and pride. The same happened with me,” Gavaskar continued.
“You must have seen that when his century happened, I was doing commentary and was very happy. I become sad when our talented players lose their wicket (irresponsibly), but Nitish didn’t do that. The way he held this innings, his partnership with Washington, they gave the Indians an outside chance from a point when the team was in danger.”
Gavaskar said India can still win the match and take a 2-1 lead going into the last Test at Sydney.

“If our bowlers take wickets to bowl out Australia and there is a 270-odd target to chase, we can win as well from there,” said the former India captain.
India came close to doing that by reducing Australia to 91 for 6, but the hosts recovered to reach 228 for 9 at stumps on Sunday to extend their lead to 333 runs.
Shastri, who was in the Star Sports commentary box when Nitish hit the boundary off Scott Boland to complete his century, also got emotional and said his eyes don’t get wet easily, but Nitish’s story and his hundred did make him emotional.

“Photos of his parents were being shown, their sacrifices to help Nitish play cricket. More importantly, the way he batted, the kind of character he showed, discipline, application…I was tongue-tied and there were tears in my eyes, which doesn’t easily happen,” said Shastri.
Shastri said he met Nitish before the start of play on Sunday.
“I told him, ‘You have a big heart’. It takes guts to play like this in front of a big crowd on your first Test tour; it can be intimidating…Don’t send him at No. 7 now, send him in top 6. He should have a lot of runs in Test cricket,” he added.

Nitish’s sister was also present when the family met the two Indian greats.
“He always used to say ‘I’ll make you proud one day” and yesterday was that day for us,” she said, adding that it’s the first international trip for her parents.
The meeting concluded in heartwarming scenes of Nitish’s father touching Gavaskar’s feet, and the legend responded by giving him a warm hug.