For no fault of his own, Harshit Rana has been trolled and even abused. Forget faceless people online; the pacer from Delhi was labelled as a ‘yes-man’ of India head coach Gautam Gambhir by none other than former chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
But what wrong has Harshit done? Well, getting selected for the India vs Australia series was enough. After showing promise for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he has been backed by current head coach and captains Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav. And although his Test numbers aren’t great, he averages less than 24 in T20Is and ODIs.
Not to forget, he’s just 23. Harshit’s still learning, but he’s got the raw skills and the management is backing him. The general cricket audience and even some experts, for some reason, can’t understand that. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has come to Harshit’s defence amid all of this unjust scrutiny.
“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 is able to do that or not is a separate issue,” Aakash said on the YouTube channel.
One of India’s few all-format pacers
The former Delhi opener highlighted how Harshit is one of five all-format fast bowlers that India has. The other four are Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Arshdeep Singh. He listed several other pacers, most of whom aren’t even in the scheme of things in more than one format. Yet, for some reason, Harshit is getting criticised for showing he’s got the skills for international cricket that many older than him haven’t displayed.
“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 kind of Test 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,” he added.
Dhoni & Kohli also backed certain players
Aakash also highlighted how India’s three best captains of the 21st century also backed players. Sourav Ganguly was adamant about playing Virender Sehwag over Aakash himself despite the selectors being against the decision. MS Dhoni backed Rohit Sharma for years, and then in 2013, he finally came good. Similarly, Virat Kohli backed players like KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara despite diminishing returns. Each captain has their players and plays them, and it’s no different than what’s happening with Harshit right now.
“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.
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