Subhayan Chakraborty in Canberra
When India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav announced the players left out of the opening match of the five-game series against Australia at Manuka Oval in Canberra, one name on the bench surprised everyone – India’s leading wicket-taker in the format, Arshdeep Singh. Harshit Rana was preferred over the left-arm pacer after impressing with a fiery four-fer in the third ODI against the Aussies in Sydney. As has been the case with Harshit since he made his international debut under head coach Gautam Gambhir’s tenure, trolling and criticism have been a common theme on social media platforms, with many taking subtle digs at the selection.
As India opted for two specialist spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy, and with Nitish Kumar Reddy missing out due to a neck spasm, they took the punt on Harshit to deliver with the bat at number eight. Yes, he was impressive with the ball at the SCG, bagging his career-best 4/39 to help India avoid a whitewash in the three-match ODI series. Harshit did not strike with the new ball, but it was he who triggered Australia’s collapse from 183/3 to 236 all out.
Even in the second ODI in Adelaide, Harshit started on a bright note, picking up the wicket of Travis Head, but an explosive cameo from Mitchell Owen ruined his bowling figures. However, what caught the eye in that game was his batting. When India were struggling at 226/8, Harshit remained unbeaten while scoring 24 off 18 to take India to a respectable total of 264/9.
With the Gambhir-Suryakumar-led think-tank clearly preferring batting depth while also opting for attacking spinners, and not the spin-bowling all-rounder in Washington Sundar, Harshit’s selection had merit. Had Hardik Pandya been fit, it would have been a different-looking line-up altogether. But in his absence, this Indian team management prefers batting depth to allow the top order not to think about batting deep. Harshit has not only been working on his bowling with Morne Morkel, but Gambhir and Ryan ten Doeschate have also been closely working and monitoring his progress with the bat at the nets. In the build-up to the T20I series, Harshit spent considerable time fine-tuning his game with the bat, with the coaching staff working on his power-hitting technique.
One may argue about India leaving out their most successful pacer in the format in Arshdeep, but with Australian conditions suiting hit-the-deck pacers, Harshit provides a different skill-set to the pacers currently in the squad. Jasprit Bumrah is in a class apart, but besides him, the Men in Blue only have Arshdeep, who is kind of a floater.
At the end of the ODI leg of India’s white-ball tour of Australia, Rohit Sharma had lavished praise on Harshit for his performances in Adelaide and Sydney.
“A lot of the guys haven’t been here or played white-ball cricket. So, we can take a lot of positives from here. Especially Harshit Rana, who’s playing white-ball cricket for the first time in Australia,” Rohit told BCCI.tv. “The way he bowled in both games-Perth obviously was a shortened game-but looking at how he bowled in Adelaide and here (Sydney), it was a fantastic effort from him.”
Even ODI captain Shubman Gill was all praise for Harshit after the Sydney ODI, pinpointing what the Men in Blue are looking for from Harshit at number 8. “I think the No. 8 position for us, if a batsman can make 20-25 runs there, which we have confidence that Harshit can do, then it becomes a very important position. There are very few fast bowlers who are tall, who can bowl 140-plus. So if we are looking at South Africa, on such wickets, such bowlers become very important,” Gill said at the post-match conference.
While a general trend to criticise players over social media has become a fashion to garner eyeballs, these bilateral series on the road to the T20 World Cup in February-March next year have become important for the Indian team to dish out different combinations. They would prefer a young player to fail in bilaterals in a bid to polish him up for major tournaments rather than throw him in the deep sea straightaway. Whereas for Arshdeep, the doors to the XI are not closed at all. It is just a phase for the Indian team where they are testing different players in different situations.
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