Follow UsFast bowler Harshit Rana made his T20I debut for India in the fourth T20I against England when he took the field as a concussion substitute for pace-bowling allrounder Shivam Dube. Rana is the first player among full-member teams to debut in T20Is as a concussion substitute.
Craig Overton’s bouncer hit Dube on his helmet on the penultimate ball of India’s innings, and he was run out on the last delivery. Since Dube was playing as a pace bowling allrounder, India would have missed his bowling in the second innings. That’s why pacer Rana came in as a substitute for Dube.
The Delhi born made an instant impact in the game, picking his maiden T20I wicket on his second delivery. He got the flamboyant allrounder Liam Livingstone caught behind by bowling a back-of-a-length delivery close to the stumps and making the batter nudge at it. He also cleaned up Craig Overton and dismissed Jacob Bethell to end with figures of 3/33, the second-best bowling figure for the home side.
England skipper Jos Buttler looked visibly upset with Rana’s inclusion in the Indian team as the youngster is a much more skillful and impactful pacer than Dube, who bowls gentle medium pace.
Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen also pointed out that it’s not a like-for-like replacement and indicated that India benefitted unfairly from the substitution.
Earlier, Hardik Pandya and Dube’s 87-run partnership allowed India to recover and post a competitive total of 181 on the board after being 79/5 in 10.4 overs. That proved to be 15 run too much for the English batters, as Ravi Bishnoi and Rana took six English wickets between them.