From being trolled online to delivering his best with the ball in Australia, Harshit Rana has started to dominate with the ball. He went high in economy rates in the majority of the games he had played, but his comeback was strong. Harshit Rana was able to perform well for the team in the final ODI match against Australia in the three-match series.
While everyone talked about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli showcasing their brilliant performances,
the contribution of Harshit Rana. He got his career-best bowling figures in the match, taking four crucial wickets for the Indian team. For this, Rana also received praises from the former Indian cricketer, Kris Srikkanth.
1. Harshit Rana in Third ODI
The third ODI match between India and Australia was set to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This ground is known to be in favour of the batsmen, and fans expected a high-scoring game. Australia, knowing the pitch conditions,
to bat first and also received a strong start in the power play.
But as soon as the wickets started falling, Harshit Rana stepped up to take down the middle order of the team. The Australian middle order also had strong batsmen such as Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, and more. To dismiss them, Rana decided to take the job into his hands.
He started off by taking the wicket of Alex Carey, which gave a major breakthrough to the Indian team. This is where even the spinners started to take wickets from the other end, increasing the pressure. Later, he also took the wicket of Mitch Owen, who could have boosted the scoring rate towards the death overs.
Pic Source: ESPNcricinfo
Now, it was Cooper Connolly who stood at the crease, and other bowlers failed to take his wicket. But Harshit Rana came back in the 47th over, and he successful took the wicket of Connolly. Eventually, he also dismissed Josh Hazlewood in the same over, bundling Australia all out for just 236 runs.
2. Srikkanth Changes Views on Harshit Rana
Kris Srikkanth was a former captain of the Indian cricket team. Nowadays, he is mainly active on YouTube, where he posts content related to the game. When Harshit Rana was announced in the Indian team for the Australian tour, Srikkanth expressed his views on the same.
He said that Harshit Rana would be the constant Yes Man to Gautam Gambhir, due to which he is being selected across every series. This clip went a lot viral on social media handles, as the statement came from Kris Srikkanth, who has been a crucial part of the Indian team before.
But, it seems that the views of Srikkanth have now changed, thanks to the match-winning performances shown by Harshit Rana with the ball. Although he was able to do well with the bat in the second ODI too, it was his bowling performance which was awaited by the fans.
by taking 4 wickets, marking his career best figures.
With this, Kris Srikkanth recently said on his YouTube channel, “Harshit Rana deserves all the praise. I am very happy for you. Yes, I criticized you a lot but at the end of the day, you’ve done very well. He has got his confidence back from the last match after scoring with the bat and from his first spell with the ball. The more he performs this way, his confidence will continue growing. Today he looked like a very confident bowler.”
3. Gambhir Backs Harshit Rana
Before the India tour of Australia started, Harshit Rana had received a lot of hatred and criticism from the fans and even cricket analysts. This was also noticed by the Head Coach of the Indian team, Gautam Gambhir. And just after the Test series against the West Indies concluded, Gambhir went for a Press Conference.
There,
about a number of things for the India tour of Australia. Along with that, he also called upon the unnecessary hatred which is being received by a young talent, such as Harshit Rana. From backing Harshit before the series to having him bowl a great spell in the final ODI, even the Indian Head Coach has silenced the critics.