Harshit Rana has become a surprise choice for Indian team in all three formats.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra has backed Harshit Rana to come good for the Indian team and stated that he doesn’t deserve the hate he is receiving on social media. A few previous players and netizens online have questioned the young fast bowler's position in the Indian squad.
Chopra defended Rana and challenged his assessment of how many bowlers in the current Indian fast bowling squad are deemed all-format.
“Let’s not get carried away yet. He doesn’t deserve the hate. It’s not his mistake. If you have to give hate, give it to someone else and not to him, because he is not asking for him to be selected. You select him, and he comes and plays. He tries to win the match, and whether he can do that or not is a separate issue,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
He named pacers like Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, and Arshdeep Singh, amongst others, who play or are in the scheme of things for all three formats for India.
“It will happen. Let’s make a long list of fast bowlers who are close to the Indian team—(Mohammed) Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana at the moment, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, and Akash Deep. Who else? Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are not there.
We have forgotten Umran Malik. Khaleel (Ahmed) can come, but he is not your Test kind of bowler. Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav, T Natarajan—whose name should I take? When you see this list, it’s not like you have a dozen bowlers standing ready. You don’t have that many. That’s why the team feels that they should back Harshit Rana if he has that game,” Chopra said.
Chopra further stated that this new captain-coach combo of Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir will back a few players, like their predecessors, who can go on to become legends of the game.
“If someone has played more in front of a coach, captain, or selector, they see more potential in him and want to back him. Sourav Ganguly also backed some players. Eventually, some of them became the legends of the game. Similarly, Dhoni backed many players. They became legends of the game. Virat Kohli also backed someone. Now, Shubman Gill will also back someone,” Chopra concluded.