Former BCCI chief selector Kris Srikkanth showered rich praise on Harshit Rana, acknowledging his all-round improvement in international cricket.
Not long ago, Srikkanth went on a YouTube rant, questioning Rana’s selection in the Indian team across formats. However, the youngster has proven his critic wrong with consistent performances in white-ball cricket over the last three months.
On Sunday (January 18), Rana gave another glimpse of his clean hitting with the bat. Walking into bat at 178/6 when India were chasing 338 in the series-deciding third T20I in Indore, the right-hander slammed 52 off 43 balls with four sixes and as many fours. He shared a 99-run partnership with centurion Virat Kohli, keeping India’s hopes alive in the chase.
“Virat Kohli is King of Kings. Bow down to him. What a knock! If you look at the scorecard and the fall of wickets, they fell continuously. It was 1/28, 2/45, 3/68 and 4/71. Nitish Kumar Reddy came and steadied the innings and later hit sixes,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
“But the real game-changer was Harshit Rana. The way Rana was batting, New Zealand players were shivering. I was amazed by Rana’s batting and performed at a different level. They were literally shaking and didn’t know what to do. He was hitting sixes effortlessly and his batting was tremendous,” he added.
“Out of the 99 runs that Virat Kohli and Harshit Rana added, Rana made 52. That 52 runs were crucial and gave Kohli hope even though the asking rate was above 11. Rana’s hitting reduced it to 10 and New Zealand were scared. New Zealand captain was scared too,” he further remarked.
Harshit Rana was dismissed in the 44th over by Zakary Foulkes. Kohli tried his best drag India past the winning line, but eventually perished for 124 (108 balls) while playing a lofted drive against Kristian Clarke in the 46th over. His wicket was final nail in the coffin as India’s innings folded for 296 in 46 overs, handing New Zealand their maiden ODI series win on Indian soil.
In October last year, Srikkanth had alleged that Rana was in the national side only because of his equation with head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Gambhir then hit back at the former chairman of selectors in a press conference, saying that one shouldn’t target a youngster to run a YouTube channel.
