Harshit Rana fires back at critics after powerplay heroics against South Africa in Ranchi: 'I don't care about...'

Delhi and Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Harshit Rana has been in the spotlight for over a year now, having been consistently picked in the Indian squad across formats for assignments at home as well as on foreign soil.

And it’s no coincidence that Rana’s fortunes in international cricket improved dramatically after Gautam Gambhir, who had also played for Delhi and KKR in the past and had mentored the latter in the Indian Premier League last year.

Rana however, has also found himself in the firing line more often than not. The 23-year-old pacer has had his moments in an Indian kit but hasn’t been able to achieve the kind of consistency that would justify him getting consistently picked ahead of proven match-winners such as Mohammed Shami.

The speedster managed to silence his critics to an extent with his sensational powerplay spell in the first of three ODIs against South Africa in Ranchi on Sunday .

Rana opens up on dealing with criticism

Rana struck twice in one over, getting rid of Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock as the Men in Blue reduced the Proteas to 11/3 after setting them a challenging 350 to win.

Rana later got rid of middle-order sensation Dewald Brevis and signed off with figures of 3/65, with India going on to win the high-scoring thriller by 17 runs to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.

And speaking to reporters ahead of the second one-dayer in Raipur on Wednesday, Rana hit back at his detractors, insisting that he does not pay attention to outside noise and focus on his performance on the field.

“If I start listening to all these things, put them in my mind and take the field, I won’t be able to play cricket,” Rana said during the pre-match press conference at Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium.

“I try to avoid as much as possible. I just pay attention to what I have to do on the ground. I don’t care about what is happening outside or what someone is saying about me.

“I just focus on my hard work and what I am going to do on the ground,” the young pacer added.

With star pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj rested for the three-match ODI series against South Africa, Rana had been included in the pace department for the series opener in Ranchi’s JSCA Stadium along with Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh.

And his twin-strike in the powerplay should ensure Rana remains part of the XI for the second game in Raipur.

Rana opens up on Arshdeep’s influence, praises ICC’s ODI ball rule

During the pre-match presser, Rana also spoke on working on his skills with bowling coach Morne Morkel and teammate Arshdeep, who had made his India debut more than three years ago and is the nation’s leading wicket-taker in the T20I format.

“With the new ball I am practicing a lot with Morne (Morkel) and I keep talking to Arshdeep a lot. I feel that Arshdeep has a lot of experience and he keeps helping and guiding me during practice,” he added.

Rana also praised ICC’s new rule for the ODI format in which two new balls are used at the start of the innings and only one of them is used for the remainder of the innings after the 34th over, with the fielding team getting to pick between the two balls.

“You know that bowlers do not get so much help in today’s cricket so this rule is very helpful for us and it is always on the mind to see which ball is getting older. And everyone is involved in choosing that ball,” Rana added.