Harshit Rana, the Delhi pacer, has proven to be exemplary for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Yes, he has been reprimanded by the IPL for his attitude a couple of times but with the ball, he has looked a class apart. The 22-year-old in his first full season playing regularly for the Knight Riders after playing a few games sporadically over the last two seasons, has taken the role of an all-phase bowler like fish to water and has formed an excellent pace trio with Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora.
Rana has used his height to his advantage, the clever change of pace has worked for him while being accurate with his lines and lengths. The economy may be on the higher side but the season has been such that 7 out of the top 10 leading wicket-takers have an economy rate in excess of 8.50 with Jasprit Bumrah, Sunil Narine and Matheesha Pathirana being the only exceptions.
Rana has taken 14 wickets in nine matches so far with his best of 3/24 coming against the Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, May 5. With the wicket getting slower as the game progressed, Rana's into-the-wicket deliveries were gripping and causing problems for the LSG batters, who were already under pressure chasing a humongous 236.
Five of the KKR bowlers are in the top 20 and Harshit is one of them, which again proves the fact that even though Sunil Narine and Phil Salt have been magnificent at the top with the bat, if a team has to win a tournament, the bowling attack has to be spot on. Harshit, Narine, Starc, Vaibhav, Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy have hunted in a pack causing trouble for the opponents.
Rana already has a fast bowling contract with the Indian team and is only going to get better from here. Having played the emerging Asia Cup last year for U-23 team, Rana is not far from earning his senior team debut and the ongoing season of the IPL might have a huge role to play in it.
