Nitish Reddy has been ruled out of England T20I series (Source:@Meizshree/X.com)
Nitish Kumar Reddy is touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket, and has been impressive in both T20Is and Test cricket so far. He was one of India's shining lights on a difficult tour of Australia, and his all-round skills makes him a hot asset.
The young all-rounder first grabbed limelight in IPL 2024 for Sunrisers Hyderabad and scored 303 runs in 11 innings at an average of 33.66 and strike-rate of 142.92. As a result, the franchise retained him and he is likely to play a big part in IPL 2025 for the runners-up of the last edition.
However, with the marquee league almost two months away, the 21-year-old has suffered an injury setback that would atleast require four weeks to heal. The news came out ahead of the second T20I against England and he has been sent to BCCI centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. He is likely to be ready to play in IPL, but if the recovery takes more time than expected, SRH would have to look at quality replacements.
So, in this article, let's look at the three players who can replace Nitish Reddy in IPL 2025, incase he misses out.
1. Shardul Thakur
Shardul Thakur was one of the hottest properties in IPL couple of years ago and played for DC and KKR at a price of 10.75 Crore in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In the last season, he played for CSK at 4 Crore, but surprisingly went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, he is a quality cricketer which he displayed again in the Ranji game with a superb century under pressure.
Shardul is a medium-pacer and can use the long handle to great effect and though he is a bowling all-rounder, unlike Reddy who is more of a batter, he could be a good fit with his multi-dimensional game. Also, Shardul has lot of experience and has 94 wickets in IPL with one fifty to his name. He has done decently in T20Is for India as well and it makes him a worthy replacement of Nitish Reddy.
2. Sanjay Yadav
Sanjay Yadav is a consistent performer at the domestic level for Tamil Nadu, but has not got enough chances in IPL to prove his talent. He played one game for MI in IPL 2022 and is an all-rounder who bowls left-arm spin and can deliver under pressure with the bat.
He has shown his talent in TNPL over the years and has scored 1462 runs in 54 innings at a strike-rate of 148.73 and average of 34. He has one century to his name and 11 fifties too and can bat at any position according to the need of his side.
He has 28 wickets in the tournament too, and if he gets regular chances, he can fill the place of Nitish Reddy with his all-round skills. It also gives SRH a spin-bowling option which is the only area where they seems to be bit light at the moment.
3. Daryl Mitchell
SRH have a strong overseas arsenal at their disposal, but they still have one slot remaining in that category. So, they can rope in a foreign star as well and with a quality player like Daryl Mitchell available, SRH might bring him in. He is a like-for-like replacement of Nitish Reddy as he can bat in top four or five and can roll his arms as well just like the Indian star.
Mitchell did decently in the last season for CSK with 318 runs in 13 innings with a strike-rate of 142.60. He has 4742 runs in T20s overall and has 78 wickets as well and could be a great addition to the SRH line-up.