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Young Indian pacer Harshit Rana's much-awaited T20I debut has been marred with controversy. Rana was not in the playing XI but got a chance to bowl in the second innings of the fourth T20I as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube who scored a half-century in the first innings. Former cricketers including Michael Vaughan criticised the move as he felt it was not a "like-for-like replacement' similar to captain Jos Buttler. After posting “How can an out & out bowler replace a batter who bowls part time”, Vaughan said that England would have done the same had they been in India's place.
"I have to say, the substitute, how did they find Harshit Rana as a like-to-like for Shivam Dube? An out-and-out bowler to replace a batter that bowls some part-time stuff is beyond me. England would have done the same by the way, if they had a chance to replace the player. But, you can't tell me that Harshit is a like-to-like replacement for Shivam Dube," Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
Rana bagged three wickets for 33 runs from his quota of five overs and helped India beat England by 15 runs in the fourth T20I. India took an unassailable lead of 3-1 in the five-T20I series ahead of the clash at the Wankhede Stadium.
What Buttler said after the match?
England captain Buttler was baffled by the decision and said that he has questions for the match referee Javagal Srinath.
"Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25 mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It's not a like-for-like replacement, we don't agree with that. It's part of the game, I still think we should have gone on to win the match but we disagree with the decision," Buttler said in the post-match press conference.
"There's no consultation. It was something as I came out to bat, I was thinking 'who's Harshit on for' and I was told he was the concussion replacement, which I obviously disagreed with, it's not a like-for-like replacement. They [umpires] said the match referee had made the decision so we had no say in it or any part of it. We'll ask Javagal Srinath [match referee] some questions just to get some clarity around it."
Meanwhile, India bowling coach Morne Morkel said that they followed the protocol and put forward Rana's name which was approved by the match referee.
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