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Impressed with Harshit Rana's "confidence," India's former bowling coach Bharath Arun listed out qualities that make the young gun effective in Australia for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Harshit was among the pool of inexperienced players brought in by India for the new chapter in a fierce rivalry with Australia. The 22-year-old speedster caught the eye of spectators while featuring for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. In what one can call out to be a breakout season for the youngster, Harshit picked 19 wickets for himself in 13 matches, lifting KKR to its third IPL title. While his influence in white-ball cricket became obvious, Harshit has slowly made ground in red-ball cricket, with his figures reflecting his aptitude for the format. Standing at 6'1, Harshit's natural ability to generate bounce and generate movement out of it makes him an ideal contender to feature in Perth on Friday. With reports indicating a potential debut for Harshit, Arun believes the youngster's natural traits will be suited to the Australian conditions, making him a very "useful" asset for India. "His confidence. He is very sure of his ability and isn't scared of the big stage. He is a tall bowler and he will be able to generate bounce. What goes in his favour is also his ability to get movement," Arun told RevSportz. "Someone who gets bounce and movement is rare, and in Australian conditions, he can be a very useful bowler for India. Having seen him very closely, his confidence is something that has stood out for me," he added. Harshit's knack for taking wickets in the red-ball format manifests in his 43 scalps from 10 first-class cricket matches. All eyes will be on India's playing XI to see the plan constructed by Gambhir to begin the BGT with flying colours. India's squad for Border-Gavaskar Series: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar. Australia squad for the first Test: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc. (ANI)
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