When it was announced that Nitish Kumar Reddy would make his Test debut in Perth, there were fears that the 21-year-old was too raw to be thrown in at the deep end.

After all, Nitish had only averaged 21 with the bat in first-class cricket ahead of the warm-up games against Australia ‘A’. And in the two unofficial Tests against Australia ‘A’, the youngster looked very ‘not ready’ with the bat, averaging 17.75 in four innings.

But Nitish was asked to sink or swim in brutal conditions at Optus Stadium and showed levels with the bat that shocked just about every single one.

He took the team from 73/6 to 150 in the first innings in Perth by hitting 41 off 59 balls and what stood out was the fearlessness in the delivery of his shots. The same was reflected in the way he tackled Nathan Lyon, who he swept out of the attack.

Nitish found himself in a completely different situation in the second innings – India had already knocked Australia out of the competition – and there the right-hander beat a tired Australian attack to submission, smashing 38 off just 27 balls.

It took Nitish just two innings to convince the management that their intuition was right and that he was talented enough to not only learn on the job but also win cricket matches along the way.

Well, now three innings into his Test career, Nitish has probably convinced the management that he is certainly the next big thing and needs to be fully backed, regardless of his returns.

A cameo in the debut is good. It’s great to back it up with another cameo. But how about a lightning hat-trick?

India keeps putting Nitish in ridiculously high-pressure situations and he keeps delivering. This is absurd considering this is a batsman who, quite apart from being a finished product, still averages 22.57 in first-class cricket.

At 141/8, with Starc in song, India would have been 165-eyed even with a recognized batsman left in the middle.

But Nitish has always dreamed big and pushed boundaries and he has achieved everything he dreamed of by making it happen.

He did the same today at the Adelaide Oval, taking India’s score to 180 even though it looked like they would get a score of around 150 for all the money.

Once again, it was the sheer boldness of this young man that stood out. Sweeping Lyon backwards is one thing, but when the team’s backs were against the wall, Nitish teed up a rhythm-stretching Scott Boland for a maximum. The goal left the crowd in awe of Nitish, but more importantly it seemed to rattle Boland, who then lost his lines and eventually had to be taken out of the attack.

But that wasn’t even his best shot of the day. Nitish’s best performance came against a fiery Mitchell Starc, whom he hit to the maximum over cover. It was reminiscent of the shot Rohit Sharma hit against Pat Cummins at the same venue six years ago, only this was made by a youngster playing his second Test against the greatest pink-ball bowler in history.

We are only in the second Test of this series, which means Nitish may still have seven more innings to go. But he has already equaled the record for most sixes hit by an Indian in a Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia (6). Only two have scored as many, Murali Vijay in 2014-15 and Virender Sehwag in 2003-04, and both went eight innings each. Nitish will be there in three minutes. At this rate, it is fair to say that the prodigy from Visakhapatnam will break the record by the end of the series.

Two weeks ago, fans back home in India were worried about whether Nitish was ready for Tests. Within 15 days the tide has turned and now Australia is afraid of the teenager.

Sky seems to be the limit for this generational talent that seems to be getting stronger with each inning.

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