Though there was a lot of criticism around Harshit Rana's selection for the ODI series against Australia, the pacer ended up delivering big time. He picked up a total of six wickets in three matches and reserved his best performance for the last match, recording figures of 4/39. Thanks to his valiant contributions with the ball, the Men in Blue bundled out the hosts for 236 runs, setting up a very gettable target. They eventually went on to complete the chase thanks to a brilliant 168-run stand between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir was thoroughly impressed with Harshit's performance and gave a special mention to him in his dressing room speech after the match.
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“Special mention to Harshit; that was an outstanding spell. What I want to say is stay humble, stay grounded, keep working hard. It’s just the start; it’s not the end," Gambhir said in a video posted by BCCI.
Though Harshit isn't a regular member of India's ODI set-up and has only played in a total of eight matches so far, his impressive performance in Australia may lead to him featuring in the Men in Blue's next ODI assignment that will be against South Africa and will commence from November 30.
The 23-year-old will now be shifting his focus to the five-match T20I series against Australia that will begin from October 29. He didn't get a lot of game-time in the Asia Cup as both Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh were the ones who led the side's pace attack. It remains to be seen if the team management will show faith in him for the upcoming matches or not.
India’s squad for Australia ODIs: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.