Harshit Rana took four wickets in the Perth Test but went wicketless in Adelaide, highlighting his inexperience at the international level. Is it time for India to bring in Akash Deep?
After the thumping victory at Perth against Australia, India were brought down to earth at Adelaide. The Men in Blue lost the Test by 10 wickets. Harshit Rana, in particular, had a fall from the seventh heaven as he ended up with no wickets for 86 runs at Adelaide. Notably, he had earlier taken four wickets in his debut Test at Perth.
Was Rana rushed into Test cricket? Does he lack the experience required for the longer format? Could Akash Deep, a seasoned domestic cricketer, have been a better choice as the third seamer over Rana? Should Deep replace Rana for the third Test in Brisbane?
These are just some of the questions swirling in the minds of both the management and fans. Let’s first analyse what went wrong for Rana in his debut Test.
Rana’s Adelaide mayhem: Lack of mentoring, inexperience and leaking runsÂ
At Perth, the communication from the stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah and former skipper Virat Kohli helped Rana hit the right line and length. As a result, he ended up with four wickets in the match. Contrastingly, at Adelaide, there seemed to be a communication gap from seniors to Rana. While Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj had their moments of brilliance in the match, Rana struggled with his control.
Rana sprayed the ball all over the pitch – bowling too full, or too short or spraying down the leg side to be made into easy meat by the aggressive Aussie batters. He was particularly poor while controlling the run flow. Rana conceded 5.37 runs per over, while Bumrah was in top form, giving away just 2.65 runs per over. Mohammed Siraj started off wayward but quickly adjusted, finding the right line and length to finish with 4 wickets, conceding only 4 runs per over.
The match exposed his inexperience as he struggled to get his line and length correct. This discipline and the wisdom of line and length on particular pitches comes with premier red-ball experience. But Rana, who is just in his second season of first-class cricket, didn’t have the knowledge and experience to fall back on. Hence, Aussie batters made a mockery of his bowling, smashing fours with relative ease.
Travis Head, who needs no invitation to play aggressively, was extremely severe on Rana’s lack of control. He smacked Rana’s bowling for seven fours in a three-over spell by the bowler. Earlier, Head and Marnus Labuschagne combined to smack four boundaries in an over bowled by Rana.
With Rana releasing the pressure from one end, Bumrah had to do all the heavy loading. Even Siraj struggled to bowl at the stumps and make the batters commit to shots. Overall, the lack of a genuine third seamer at Adelaide hurt India.
Read More: Rohit Sharma looked clueless as skipper in Adelaide; Does he lack the killer instinct?
The case for Akash Deep replacing Harshit RanaÂ
In that case, should India go back to Deep who has not put a foot wrong since making his Test debut for India? Deep has been playing First-Class cricket for Bengal for five years, picking up 123 wickets in 36 matches. In five Tests, he has picked up 10 wickets. He has a good control over his line and length and can be a real threat in terms of making the batters commit errors.
Moreover, he has the knack of picking up wickets upfront and could give some respite to Bumrah in that department. Besides, he can hold one end up, not give away easy runs and create pressure on the opposition batters to take undue risks. India need an experienced bowler to bowl at a consistent line and length on Australian pitches and no one other than Deep fits the bill so perfectly.
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