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Cricket PlayersIPL 2020: ‘Act like Dada, act like Dada’ - How KKR’s Nitish Rana imbibed Sourav Ganguly’s playing style
IPL 2020: Before the start of the 13th edition of Indian Premier League, Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Nitish Rana opened up on his style of play and his idols.
Nitish Rana is an experienced customer in the Indian Premier League having already played 46 games and scored 1,000 + runs. The left-handed batsman, who can also bowl a few quick overs in the middle, is seen as a potential match-winner for KKR by the cricketing pundits, a talent he has displayed on quite a few occasions.
Rana has the ability to hit big shots, and accelerate the innings as soon as he comes down to the middle. But the middle-order batsman does not like to take too many risks while doing so, and that is a hard balance to attain.
Rana, throughout his career, has often faced comparisons with the likes of former India captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir. In a recent interview uploaded on KKR website, the 26-year-old explained how he imbibed Ganguly and Gambhir’s playing styles.
“Where I stayed, everyone said I could mimic cricketers’ actions really well. So people started saying, ‘Act like dada, act like dada’, so playing like him in my early days, copying his style back then, Ganguly’s style got ingrained in my game,” Rana told kkr.in.
“But when I started playing seriously then it was Gambhir, because I grew up watching him bat from close quarters at the club. So just from seeing him bat in the flesh, I have picked up a lot from him,” he further added.
“I don’t think our batting styles match, but people say that. And even if they say that, I have absolutely no problem with that because I have witnessed his batting so much from such close quarters for the last 12 years, that if there’s even a little glimpse of him in me, I will consider myself lucky,” Rana added.
KKR have won two IPL titles so far, and will be eager to win the third one when IPL 2020 kicks off in the UAE from September 19th.
