Harshit Rana Will Not Play The Third IND vs NZ Test, Abhishek Nayar Confirms

Young bowler Harshit Rana will have to wait for his India debut until the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia in November after the team’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar said that they will not make any changes to the squad for the upcoming third  Test against New Zealand in Mumbai.

Just ahead of the third Test that is taking place from November 1, Rana was added to the Indian team and a lot of talks were going on as to whether he will feature in India’s playing XI or not. Earlier, Rana bowled brilliantly as he picked up a five-wicket haul and also scored fifty in the Ranji Trophy for Delhi against Assam. The BCCI also added him to the Indian squad for the Test Series Australia which is starting next month.

"No additions to the squad. Every week is critical, every day is critical. We have not been narrow-minded in thinking about WTC final. We want to focus on this match,” said Nayar.

Harshit had a terrific run in the IPL 2024 while playing for KKR as he picked up 19 wickets in 13 matches and received India call-ups during the Sri Lanka tour and the Bangladesh T20I series.

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Squads for India’s tour of South Africa & Border-Gavaskar Trophy announced #TeamIndia | #SAvIND | #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Z4eTXlH3u0

— BCCI (BCCI) October 25, 2024

Earlier, Rana could not take part in the 3rd T20I against Bangladesh due to a viral infection before joining the Indian team again for the New Zealand series as a reserve. 

Indian squad for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed