Although Harshit Rana has played a vital role for India at the MCG, he was not given much credit for his innings, before Varun Aaron praised him and said that he justified his selection in the XI as well as his promotion in the batting order.
With India struggling with the bat at the MCG, Harshit Rana was promoted up the order and ahead of all-rounder Shivam Dubey. Although many people criticized this decision in the beginning, Harshit Rana scored 35 runs in the match.
However, after this innings which made an important contribution to India’s batting, he did not receive much praise. It is said that he wasted balls for set batsman Abhishek Sharma and limited the playing time.
“Very important innings. It almost justified his selection and batting at No. 8 (No. 7)” – Varun Aaron
Recently during a conversation with Star Sports, Varun Aaron shared his views on Harshit Rana’s innings. For him, this innings was very important for the team. He also shared that this innings justified his selection as well as promotion to the Indian XI.
He replied, “Very important innings. It almost justified his selection and batting at No. 8 (No. 7). Gautam Gambhir and the coaching staff have obviously watched him a lot in the nets and practice matches and have faith in his batting. I think he has shown glimpses of someone who can be a good all-rounder.”
The former RCB fast bowler also revealed that the bowling all-rounder had saved India from such trouble twice during the second ODI against Australia.
“Even in the one-day series, in the second game in Adelaide, when India needed runs, he scored 24 there. Today (Friday) he scored 30 in difficult conditions. The ball was seaming there, the ball was seaming today. India were in a position in Adelaide. India were in a position today,” Aaron explained.
Aaron blames Shivam Dubey for India’s flop show
While many players, as well as fans, were unhappy with the Indian team management for not sending Dubey, who had played a quality innings in the Asia Cup final. Varun Aaron had said that Shivam Dubey is to blame for India not being able to score big.
He said, “Shivam Dubey should have continued his good work. If Shivam Dubey had not been out for just four runs and had taken it deeper, India’s score could have been much better.”
Shivam Dubey was out after scoring just 4 runs on two balls; While one went to the boundary off his outside edge, the other was caught by Inglis, ending Dube’s brief stay at the crease.
Former Indian player praised Harshit Rana
After Varun Aaron, another former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa praised Harshit Rana’s innings and proved that he can become a bowler who can bat for a long time for the Indian team.
He said, “This was a very important innings not only for India but also for Harshit himself because questions were being raised about his batting. He showed that he can be a bowler who can also bat.”
Uthappa said, “At the end he started moving around the crease a lot. So his head was still not working properly. So he was not getting very good connections. However, till then he was batting very well. He also formed a good partnership with Abhishek.”
Also read: Ravichandran Ashwin beats Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and names India’s next batting superstar