The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been taken to task for Harshit Rana‘s selection in India’s T20I team for the away tours of Ireland, England and the Asian Games 2026. The fast-bowling all-rounder has been out with a knee injury since early February, which forced him out of the T20 World Cup 2026 and will see him return to competitive cricket against Ireland.
The 24-year-old walked straight into the side. That hasn’t gone well with Sadagoppan Ramesh. The former India opener has questioned the basis of Harshit’s selection. Ramesh cited the examples of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Shami, all of whom were told by selectors to play domestic cricket in the absence of international cricket.
Harshit Rana’s selection questioned
In Shami‘s case, his fitness was questioned, and he featured for Bengal in the majority of the 2025-26 domestic season. Yet, Harshit has been picked with no cricket under his belt. For Ramesh, this isn’t fair on those fast bowlers like Shami, who have been toiling hard in his absence.
“How have you selected Harshit Rana? I don’t think he has played any domestic cricket after knee surgery. Nobody knows the answer to this. Just imagine what must be going on in Shami’s mind,” Ramesh said in a video on Instagram.
This isn’t the first time Harshit’s selection has been questioned. Last year, former chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth alleged that the bowling all-rounder from Delhi was picked into India’s side only because he was a ‘yes-man’ to current India head coach Gautam Gambhir.
“Whether it was Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, the management said they had to play domestic cricket to be eligible for selection. Even when Hardik Pandya got injured, he was asked to prove his fitness for selection. For Shami, they questioned if he could bowl longer spells after injury and asked him to prove himself.
The current T20I skipper, Shreyas Iyer, was asked to prove his fitness before the New Zealand ODI series by playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy. There are many such examples. So, they’ve set the precedent that a player has to come back into the Indian team. Especially after injury, a player must prove himself and his fitness in domestic cricket,” he added.
Are the accusations correct?
One must point out that all the players that Ramesh mentioned aren’t all-format players. Shreyas and Pandya don’t play Test cricket. Rohit and Kohli only play ODIs. As for Shami, he isn’t in any team. Meanwhile, Harshit is part of all three setups. And unlike the veteran, he has age on his side.
India T20I squad for Ireland, England & Asian Games 2026
Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj (not in Asian Games), Prince Yadav (not in Asian Games), Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah (only for Asian Games)
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