In a rare honour for a Telugu cricketer, Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy has been given the honour of leading Indian Blind cricket team in the Asia Cup T-20 cricket championship to be held in Kochi from January 17 to 24.
The 25-year-old has already made a mark in this form of cricket featuring in 10 ODIs and 16 T-20s for India with a career-high point of being vice-captain of the national team which won the T-20 World Cup in 2012 in Bengaluru.
For the record, Ajay Kumar was also a member of the Indian blind cricket team that won the fourth ODI World Cup, first for India for the blind in South Africa in 2014. Incidentally, he was also the ‘player of the series’ in the T-20 World Championship.
This gifted cricketer was born in Gurzala in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and currently working with the State Bank of Hyderabad in Nagarjunasagar after graduating from Nizam College in Telugu literature. “I am confident that this Indian team will lift the first Asia Cup for blind,” Ajay Kumar informed The Hindu.
This right-handed fast bowler and top-order batsman has an enviable record in T-20 cricket scoring 676 runs in 11 innings besides taking 27 wickets in 15 innings.
Ajay Kumar is one of the main stays of the Indian team having made his ODI debut in 2010 and the T-20 in 2012 with a terrific record of three ‘man of the series’ awards so far in all three formats.
