India’s Harshit Rana, second right, celebrates with teammates the wicket of Australia’s Nathan Lyon on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP/PTI)
Harshit Rana made his debut in Perth in the first Test against Australia. The youngster bustled through the crease, bowled at a brisk pace, and troubled the Australian batters with his accurate lines and lengths through his spell. He was rewarded with three wickets for his hard work.
“Yes, I couldn’t sleep until very late before my debut. But in the morning, I won’t say there were any (nervous) flutters. But the flutter was there a day before that when I had to make a speech in a team environment when I was told I would be making my debut. I broke down. Mein ro pada (I cried),” said Rana at the end of Day 2 to the Press.
“As a kid, I would get up early in the morning with my papa to watch cricket in Australia. Yeh mere liye bahut badi baat hai (to play here is a big thing for me),” he added.
Out of the three wickets, Rana’s first wicket was a pearler and most importantly it was the wicket of India’s boogieman Travis Head who just started to counterpunch after Australia was reduced to 19/3. The ball pitched on the middle and off-stump moved subtly off the seam to hit the top of Head’s off-stump. “The plan for Travis’s head was to keep it stumps. And when it moved away, it worked,” Rana would reveal.
“Jassi bhai (Jasprit Bumrah) kept telling me what to do and Virat bhai also gave advice. It was all very helpful,” Rana said. Scoring only 150 runs in the first innings India was behind the game. However, stand-in skipper Bumrah delivered a fiery spell picking three early wickets and eventually ending up with his seventh five-wicket haul to bundle out Australia for 104 runs.
However, once the hosts were all out Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul put on 172 runs. “Today the pitch did get better for batting in the morning. We are not thinking about any target. Just want to keep batting,” Rana said.
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First uploaded on: 23-11-2024 at 16:39 IST
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