India vs England: Rana shines through his roller coaster debut
After conceding the fourth-most runs in an over by an Indian, he finished as the first to have picked up three or more wickets on debut in each of the three formats
Nagpur: Those extra 25 miles per hour. That’s what England captain Jos Buttler said when he was asked about Harshit Rana being allowed to replace Shivam Dube in the Pune T20I. The jury is out on whether the application of the concussion rules made any sense then.
But Rana was able to use his extra pace to inflict enough misery on England that night and he repeated the dose under the hot afternoon sun in Nagpur. This time, on ODI debut.
To begin with, it was a trial by fire for the 23-year-old. Having got his eye in, Phil Salt launched into Rana, smashing three sixes and two fours in the sixth over of the innings. It started with a horizontal swat that caught the top edge and sailed into the stands behind the wicketkeeper. When the pacer tried to correct his length, he was driven through the off-side for four. Next ball, Rana slowed his pace, but his former KKR team-mate swept him dismissively over the deep square boundary. A dot ball later, he was hit for four through the off side and then, a six on the on-side.
India was forced to take Rana out of the attack but captain Rohit Sharma saw an opening to bring him back when Salt (43) was run out, against the run of play, in the ninth over.
With very little assistance from the relaid wicket, Rana decided to bend his back and dig it in. The tactic worked. He was able to catch the open face of Duckett’s bat (32) as the opener got his attempted pull wrong. Then, Yashasvi Jaiswal ran back from midwicket, covering a significant distance while keeping his eye on the ball before diving and completing a superb two-handed catch.
Buoyed by the wicket, Rana bounced out Harry Brook for no score in the same over to quickly turnaround his match after a tough beginning.
This is the kind of temperament that has won him Gautam Gambhir’s support. On hot sultry days, fast bowling in ODI cricket can be arduous. It was proving to be one such day for Rana, until he found a way to fire back.
When he returned for his third spell, he got into a staring match with Liam Livingstone. He won that battle too.
First, he beat the batter with bounce and pace. Soon enough, Livingstone (5) came charging down with wicket, only to see his attempted pull go horribly wrong. The ball caught his bat’s edge on the way to the wicketkeeper.
Not shy of celebrating his wickets, Rana stepped away from the batter, punched the air and whooped in delight; his redemption arc complete (7-1-53-3) in his first ODI outing. After conceding the fourth-most runs in an over by an Indian, he finished as the first to have picked up three or more wickets on debut in each of the three formats.
One of the reasons the young speedster was playing this match was to see if he could act as cover for Jasprit Bumrah’s absence in the Champions Trophy. England didn’t stretch India’s bowling at the death overs, so one wouldn’t know how he would have reacted under pressure.
But with the show he put on, the message sent across was that here is a gutsy bowler who loves the big stage.
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