Former India opener Kris Srikkanth has expressed strong criticisms regarding Harshit Rana‘s attitude and selection for the Indian team to the Australian tour 2025. Kris Srikkanth emphasized that Harshit Rana needs to concentrate more on his bowling, especially after struggling in recent performances. For example, in the Asia Cup match against Sri Lanka, Harshit Rana conceded 54 runs in 4 overs at an economy rate of 13.50.
The Australian tour includes three ODIs and five T20Is. Shubman Gill will lead the ODI squad. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul return to the lineup. Shreyas Iyer will serve as vice-captain. Suryakumar Yadav will captain the T20I squad. Shubman Gill joins as vice-captain. Jasprit Bumrah, Rinku Singh, and Sanju Samson feature in the explosive T20 lineup.
The ODI matches will take place in Perth, Adelaide, and Sydney. The T20Is will be held in Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Gold Coast, and Brisbane. Selectors included young talents like Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Dhruv Jurel. The squad blends experience with emerging players. Washington Sundar and Axar Patel earned spots in both formats. Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh will strengthen the bowling attack.
Harshit Rana’s Rapid Rise in International Cricket
Harshit Rana’s rapid rise in international cricket can be well attributed to Gautam Gambhir’s ascent to the coaching job. Harshit and Gautam first worked together in the 2024 IPL at the Kolkata Knight Riders and Gautam got to see and understand the talent of Rana. He has a good understanding and maybe because of the continuity Gautam prefers him. After a successful IPL, Harshit made his debut in all three formats.
Under Gambhir he made his debut in the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia and started well in Perth by picking up 3 wickets. But he was disappointing in the next game which was the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide where he went for plenty of runs and hardly got success. He was dropped from the subsequent matches. His Test record shows him playing 2 matches and taking 4 wickets at an average of 50.8.
Thereafter, ahead of Champions Trophy 2025, Harshit Rana made his ODI debut in the 3-match ODI series against England. He was picked in the squad in place of the injured Jasprit Bumrah. He was expensive with the new ball, but came back well with the old ball to pick up wickets. He played all 3 games against England and the first two Champions Trophy games before making way for Varun Chakravarthy in the subsequent Champions Trophy games. His ODI figures are decent with 10 wickets from 5 games at an average of 20.7 and economy of 5.69.
Surprisingly, Harshit has played only one T20I game as a concussion substitute in place of Shivam Dube and managed to pick three wickets in that game. His IPL record is decent with 40 wickets in 34 games at an economy of 9.51 and average of 25.7.
It is through IPL that he made his debut for India in all three formats. Still when the T20I Asia Cup in 2025 arrived, Harshit Rana was given preference over the likes of Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj . However nothing played well for Harshit Rana as he was taken to cleaners in 2 matches played in Asia Cup 2025 vs Oman and Sri Lanka. When everyone thought this was his full stop atleast for sometime, BCCI selectors alongside Gautam Gambhir sprung another surprise including the seamer for the 3 match ODI series vs Australia.
This enraged many of the cricket analysts and Former Indian cricketer and Team Selector Kris Srikkanth launched a scathing attack on the team management for their persistence with Harshit Rana despite constant failures at International level.
Kris Srikkanth slams the Indian team management for their persistence with Harshit Rana in 3 match ODI series vs Australia
Former Indian captain Kris Srikkanth launched a scathing attack on the management for their persistence with pacer Harshit Rana in ODIs. The 23-year-old was included in India’s ODI squad for the upcoming tour of Australia even as several other big names were missing.
Harshit Rana has played only five ODIs for India but boasts impressive numbers with 10 wickets at an average of 20.70 and an economy of 5.69. Yet, Srikkanth believes working with head coach Gautam Gambhir in the KKR setup in IPL 2024 has played a role in Harshit Rana’s consistent selection.
Talking about the young pacer’s selection on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth said :
“Harshit Rana is a permanent because he is Gautam Gambhir’s favorite. He is always a certainty and the first name in the team sheet after Shubman Gill.”
The former Indian opener also questioned all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s inclusion, saying:
“Where did Nitish Kumar Reddy come from? If you ask them, they’ll say he is Hardik Pandya’s replacement. But the actual replacement for Hardik is Ravindra Jadeja, not Nitish Kumar Reddy. Nitish Kumar Reddy will get clobbered in Australia in ODIs.”
“If you take him by considering him as an all-rounder, not at all fair. He is just a batsman who can bowl. He wasn’t even there in the Champions Trophy team. Nitish Kumar Reddy wasn’t even in the ODI Scheme of things. They’ve adjusted somehow to get him into the squad.”
Nitish has never played an ODI for India but is considered a like-for-like replacement for Hardik Pandya, who is ruled out of the series with an injury Kris Srikkanth believes the management is persisting with star batter Shubman Gill in T20Is to eventually make him India’s all-format captain. The 26-year-old struggled in the recently concluded T20 Asia Cup, averaging 21.16 in seven outings with no half-centuries.
“He wasn’t there in my Asia Cup squad itself. But they will persist with him because they want to make him the all-format captain. It is very obvious. Irrespective of whether he scores big or not, he’ll be made the all-format captain,” said Srikkanth
Yet, the former opener was happy about Shreyas Iyer being made the vice-captain of the ODI side.
“Shreyas Iyer did brilliantly in the Champions Trophy. And everybody knows he’s a good captain. So him being the vice-captain is a very good call. Now that they’ve made Gill the captain, Shreyas Iyer had to be the vice-captain,” he said.
Team India’s white-ball tour of Australia will begin with the three ODIs on October 19. They will play five T20Is following the ODI series.
India’s ODI squad: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
India’s T20I squad: 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.
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