Due to a knee injury he suffered during a warm-up match, Harshit Rana looks certain to miss the T20 World Cup; captain Suryakumar Yadav said on Friday that the pacer is “not looking good.”
Although Suryakumar didn’t completely rule him out, he hinted that it’s doubtful that one of head coach Gautam Gambhir’s protégés would be fit enough to participate in any of the games, beginning with Saturday’s lung-opener against the USA.
At the pre-match press conference in Mumbai on Friday, Suryakumar said, “Harshit Rana has not been ruled out yet, the physios are assessing him but he does not look good.”
Rana has little chance of recovering at any point during the competition, according to trustworthy sources within the team, despite the Indian skipper keeping his cards close to the chest.
“Don’t worry, we have 11 players for tomorrow. But it obviously would be a big blow because you make a squad of 15 after a lot of thought and he was included after some thought process. But if he is not available going forward, we will then set different combinations. We have enough players and combinations against all teams that we can have for this tournament but if we miss him (for not being available), we will definitely miss him,” said Suryakumar.
In the warm-up match against South Africa, Rana was only able to bowl one over, giving up 16 runs before limping off the field due to a knee injury. With an economy rate of 10.60 in nine Twenty20 Internationals, Rana is hardly a first XI guarantee, but under certain circumstances, he might have been a useful addition. He is a good lower-order batter as well.
Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj are two experienced pacers who could compete in lieu of Rana. Siraj has been chosen to replace Harshit Rana, according to Indian Express. Due to a rib muscle injury and side discomfort, all-rounder Washington Sundar already appears iffy.
“We will see which (other) fast bowlers have done really well for the last one or two years or if there is any bowler who can bat as well. But there is no hard and fast rule that he can bat, because if you are expecting someone at No.9 or No.10 to come out and hit a six, then what are the other eight (players) doing before him? We will see, we do have a few options but we will pick the best one,” Suryakumar said of available options.
