Rana got underneath and smoked it far beyond the long-on boundary
During the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune, the visiting team were visibly unhappy when the Indian came to bowl. They had replaced pace-bowling allrounder Shivam Dube with pacer Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute.
Dube has scored a quickfire 53 off 34 balls in the first innings and was only hit on the head by a bouncer in the last over. Rana made an unlikely debut and claimed 3-33, leaving England captain Jos Buttler with plenty to say in the post-match press conference.
“Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It’s part of the game and we really should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision,” Buttler said.
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The former Rajasthan Royals batter wasn’t done with his jibes yet when he came out for the toss in the fifth T20I at Mumbai. When asked about the changes to their playing XI in the match, Buttler replied:
“Just one change in the playing XI. Mark Wood comes in. And our four impact subs are Rehan Ahmed, Saqib Mahmood, Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson.”
However, in the ODI series it was a different story altogether when Rana made his debut with his name in the playing XI. They claimed 3-53 in Nagpure followed by 1-62 in the series-winning clash in Cuttack.
After making sure the ball did the talking in the first two ODIs, Rana got to work with the bat in the third and final ODI in Ahmedabad as he smacked Gus Atkinson for a massive six with the swagger of a top-order batter.
In the 49th over, Atkinson miscued his fuller-length ball to Rana and fired it in the hitting arc. Rana got underneath it and smoked it far beyond the long-on boundary while also striking a pose with his follow-through.
Though he was out off the final ball of that over, the six and a boundary Rana hit helped India to reach 356 all out in 50 overs.
Opener Shubman Gill contributed heavily to the scoreline with a brilliant 112 with contributions from Virat Kohli (52) and Shreyas Iyer (78). Adil Rashid was pick of the England bowlers with 4-64.
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