Young India seamer Harshit Rana is “ready” to take the responsibility of bowling in the death overs after enjoying success in his ODI debut against England. Harshit was expensive yet impactful in his maiden ODI appearance for India against England in the series opener in Nagpur on Thursday. He exposed England’s batting unit at crucial moments and became the first Indian bowler to take 3-plus wickets on his debut innings across the three formats. Harshit is known for his expertise in death bowling in the T20I format. However, his utility in the 50-over format was limited to the new ball and middle overs.
Even with three overs remaining in his account, India skipper Rohit Sharma decided to use Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja in the final phase of the first innings.
In the future, there could be a scenario where Harshit could be asked to bear the responsibility of delivering the death and the young quick is ready to embrace it.
“I have bowled well in death before. I am ready for it. This format is difficult. You get 10 overs, and you have to play different roles in different phases,” he said in the post-match press conference.
There has been a lot of noise around Harshit being fast-tracked into the Indian team and his T20I debut in the fourth match against England. In his T20 debut, Harshit took the field as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube and rescued India with game-changing figures of 3/33.
The decision to bring in Harshit had left the world of cricket divided. England captain Jos Buttler and some former cricketers were quick to express dissatisfaction with the entire scenario.
Even in his ODI debut, Harshit’s first three overs were a nightmare. He conceded 11 runs in his first over and then backed it up with a maiden in his second.
He stuck to his line and lengths in the third over, but Philip Salt had read him like a book. The explosive opener left Harshit in disarray by reeling off four consecutive boundaries. He topped it up by swinging his bat across the line and smoked the ball past the boundary line for a flat six.
Despite walking on thin ice, Harshit wasn’t willing to go down without putting up a fight. He returned to the attack in the final over of the powerplay and strick twice by removing Ben Duckett and Harry Brook.
Harshit was reintroduced into the attack in the middle overs and tasted success by celebrating Liam Livingstone’s scalp. He played with Livingstone’s hunger to play aggressively and lured him to come out and go for a wild swing. Livingstone caught a thick edge, which flew to KL Rahul’s gloves behind the stumps.
As Harshit remained undaunted despite the on-field and off-field pressure, his desire to deliver for India has helped him to block the outside noise.
“I believe people will keep talking. I want to deliver for my country. I don’t focus on outside noise,” he added.
Harshit’s ODI debut eventually came to an end with figures of 3/53 in seven overs at an economy of 7.60.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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