Harshit Rana made his debut in the first ODI between India and England in Nagpur on Thursday. The pacer was put to the sword in his opening spell when Phil Salt extracted 26 runs of Rana’s third over. At this point, the 23-year-old was looking out of his depth. However, Rana would later pick the likes of Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, and Liam Livingstone to break the spine of England’s middle order.
Though Rana conceded 53 runs from his seven overs at 7.60, his spell turned the first innings in India’s favor. “It’s never really about economy. Harshit Rana was the most expensive Indian bowler, but he got three crucial wickets and in many ways, sealed the game for India to win at the halfway stage,” Sanjay Manjrekar wrote on his X account. (Formerly known as Twitter).
Thanks to Rana and Ravindra Jadeja’s three-wicket hauls England at one point 75/0 looked like posting a massive total, were bundled out for 248 runs. “I didn’t hit the right lengths initially but got the rewards once I corrected them. They were looking to make some room (the batters), that’s the reason I kept bowling on the stumps,” Rana said about his change of strategy during the match. It’s a slightly two-paced pitch. Some of them are coming on nicely, some are stopping a bit. We bounced back in style. It’s a good total and we can chase this down,” he added.
While Duckett and Livingstone got out to short-pitch deliveries Brook was caught down the leg-side of a delivery which was around the rib-cage area. Rana would reveal that the dismissal of Brook was planned. “You can say that it was planned. Earlier, I wanted to set it up by bowling a short delivery. I was able to bowl a good short delivery and got the reward,” he said in the post-match press conference.
