From a wannabe pace bowler from Delhi to making inroads in the Indian team in all three formats in a span of less than six months — life seems to be on fast forward mode for Harshit Rana. If Gautam Gambhir, his mentor in Kolkata Knight Riders last season, has often gone against popular opinion in pushing for him, the 23-year-old has vindicated that faith by showing the heart for the big occasion.
Bowling figures of 7-1-53-3 with an economy rate of 7.53 may not exactly be called an impressive debut, but one has to put it in the perspective of the game. The brutal assault on Rana by Phil Salt, incidentally his KKR mate last season, yielded 26 runs in only his third over in ODIs, including three sixes and two fours. A shaken Rana had to be taken off the attack until he bounced back a few overs later.
Once Salt perished to a run out, Rohit Sharma brought him back quickly and a refreshed Rana was more assured with his line this time. He fired in a short ball to lure an ominous Ben Duckett to a pull as Yashasvi Jaiswal covered a lot of ground from mid-wicket to complete a spectacular catch and give Rana his first wicket in this format.
His second victim was Harry Book with a delivery at 143 clicks when the latter was caught unawares by the extra bounce and his flick was caught by K.L. Rahul. Rana then went on to send Liam Livingstone back when the latter, frustrated by slower balls, tried to run down the wicket on a shorter delivery. A thick edge off the bat flew straight into the gloves of Rahul, who was quietly efficient behind the stumps with two catches and a stumping despite not having kept wickets since the 2023 World Cup.
''Yes sir, it's been like a dream but I have worked quite hard to come this far,’’ Rana said in an end-of-innings chat after his three wickets. He joins the growing list of Indian cricketers who thrived in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the IPL first (joint highest wicket-taker for KKR in 2024 with 19 wickets) to be fast-tracked into the big league.
The choice of Rana over left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh to accompany comeback man Mohammed Shami had started to cop some flak when the debutant went for 37 runs off three overs. A possible line of thinking could be to give Rana a taste of planning his spells in the 50-over games with the ICC Champions Trophy in mind, given the uncertainty over Jasprit Bumrah’s availability.
Rana’s height, strong shoulders which help him hit the deck and the ability to frequently hit 140 kmph makes him one of the best prospects as one of India's steady new-ball operators in future. The journey, of course, has just begun…
