Harshit Rana Interview - “Aggression comes naturally to me”

Harshit Rana is not your stereotypical uncapped fast bowler. Yes, he is still raw, but his bowling is not restricted to one particular phase. You don’t need to hide him in crunch situations. Instead, the 22-year-old is someone you trust to do the job in those situations. And that’s precisely what Kolkata Knight Riders have been doing in the Indian Premier League 2024.

There is no denying that the Knight Riders’ bowling revolves around Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, but Rana has played a major role in them becoming the first team to qualify for the playoffs. The right-arm pacer has bowled some crucial and tough overs this season, be it in the powerplay, middle overs, or at the death. Despite the presence of Mitchell Starc, Rana has been KKR’s premier seamer in IPL 2024.

He is a confident young man who thinks of himself as an all-phase bowler and has the numbers to back his words. In IPL 2024, he is one of the only two bowlers with at least four wickets in each of the three phases. He doesn’t run away when the going gets tough and instead looks right into the captain's eyes, giving a hand-me-the-ball-and-I-will-do-the-job energy. 

“Obviously, I think of myself as an all-phase bowler. Mereko toh jaha bhi captain ball denge… Mein toh ever ready hu, mereko kabhi bhi ball do, mein karke dunga (I am always ready. Just give me the ball, I will get the job done),” Rana confidently tells Cricket.com in an exclusive interview. 

Mein karke dunga - calling this a baseless, overconfident statement would be utterly wrong. You don’t have to dig too deep. Just go to KKR’s first match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad and you will know what we are talking about. That game made everyone believe this young lad is no pushover. He has got guts and is willing to try different things under extreme pressure. 

The pressure in the SRH game, it was as high as Mount Everest. No, we are not exaggerating. We are talking about an uncapped Indian bowler, who made his IPL debut in 2022 and had played only eight games across two seasons before this encounter, up against Heinrich Klaasen, arguably the best T20 batter of the current generation. 

Just 13 runs to defend in the final over, with Klaasen batting on 56 off 26. And Starc, who was bought in the auction for INR 24.75 crore, had just gone for 26 runs in the 19th over. The pressure was on Rana, who had bowled his first three overs in the powerplay. He had already dismissed Mayank Agarwal and sent him off with a flying kiss, but Klaasen is different gravy.

So, what did skipper Shreyas Iyer tell Rana before giving him the ball? “He told me this is my day, ya toh star ban ja ya phir match toh aise bhi hamare se thoda dur ja hi chuka hai (you have a chance to become a star because this match has anyway gone away from us). One thing on my mind was that I will try to do what I can. If it’s my day, it’s my day,” Rana revealed.

Klaasen smoked the very first delivery for a maximum over deep backward square leg and the equation dropped down to just 7 off 5. Rana dismissed Shahbaz Ahmed and conceded only two runs in the next three balls. However, Klaasen was still out in the middle and Rana had four runs to defend off the last two deliveries. 

Rana can easily touch 140 kmph, however, he knew that wouldn’t trouble Klaasen. That’s when he decided to take pace off the delivery. As expected, the hard-hitting batter from South Africa went for a wild heave, only to get a leading edge. Suyash Sharma took a diving catch at short third man to send Klaasen back into the hut. Rana then closed off the game with another outside-off slower delivery to Pat Cummins, giving KKR a three-run victory.

“I had a feeling that he (Klaasen) would be expecting a quick delivery or something else, so I went with my gut feeling. I knew if I executed it properly and pitched the ball where I wanted to, I would either get a dot delivery or get him out. And that’s exactly what happened.” 

That match not only helped Kolkata start their season on a winning note but it also gave Rana enough confidence to trust his skill, no matter the situation. “The biggest lesson I learned from that match was to keep myself calm and composed, especially in crunch situations. Just try to stay cool.”

Since then, Rana has sort of become Iyer’s go-to man in tough situations. He now has 16 wickets in nine innings at an average of 20.75 and an economy rate of 9.71. Only three other bowlers have picked up more wickets than Rana in this edition. What’s more, 50 percent of his wickets have come in the death overs. He also has the fifth-best economy (9.2) amongst bowlers who have delivered at least 10 overs in the final phase. 

Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, Kolkata had 37 runs to defend in the last three overs and Rana conceded only six in the 18th over, including the wicket of well-set Suyash Prabhudessai. Then against Mumbai Indians, Rana defended 22 runs in the final over against Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir, who had slammed 35 runs in the previous two overs. Rana gave away just three runs and dismissed both of them. 

Rana has used his off-cutters to great effect, with 10 of his 16 wickets coming via such deliveries. Apart from Klaasen, he has also dismissed batters like Faf du Plessis, Riyan Parag and Abhishek Porel via those cutters. He also has a good bouncer in his arsenal. So, how does he know when to use what? “I prepare plans for every batter before the game, what I need to do against each batter,” revealed Rana.

“There’s always pre-match planning but things often change once you step on the field. If the conditions demand something else, you have to readjust. We do come up with a plan for every batter but the game doesn’t always play out as you pleased. You always have to readjust and look for ways to stop the opposition.”

As Rana said, you always have to readjust, especially in this batting-friendly era. This season of IPL has been the most brutal one for the bowlers, with the likes of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Klaasen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tristan Stubbs, and some of the others taking the power-hitting to a completely different level. Even in his own team, Rana has batters like Phil Salt, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell who have been going at a strike rate of more than 180.

As a bowler, you have to be smart; there needs to be a good balance between aggressive and defensive bowling. And Rana knows that. “You bowl dot balls in T20 cricket, you will create pressure on batters. 

“They will try new things, something that most of the batters are doing from the word go these days… As a bowler, I try to keep that dot percentage on the higher side. This is not a long game. The idea is to keep the opposition’s score as low as possible. You bowl dot balls in this format, you will get wickets.”

***

By the way, not everything has been nice and cozy for Harshit. In a game where Punjab Kings chased down a record target of 262, the paceman was clobbered for 61 runs in his four overs, conceding more than 50 for the first time in his T20 career. Rana, however, does not think too much about these games. After all, mahaul hamesha rehna chaiye chill. 

“My mentality… I don’t think a lot about the game once it’s over; it doesn’t matter if I do well or not. When I am on the field, I keep thinking about what I need to do, but once the match is over… It doesn’t matter if I have taken five wickets or gone for 60 runs. Once I am off the field, everything is equal for me. I start focusing on the next match.”

Rana has also garnered a lot of attention on social media for his celebrations. He was given a warning for his animated celebration in the first match against SRH, giving Mayank Agarwal a flying kiss after getting his wicket. Then against Delhi Capitals on April 29, Abishek Porel smashed Rana for two fours and a six in an over but the pacer got his revenge in the next over. 

After knocking over the stumps, Rana showed Porel the way towards the pavilion and was about to give another air kiss, but stopped midway. The tournament organisers, though, didn’t take it kindly and banned him for a game and fined 100 percent of his match fees. Rana has always been expressive on the field. Even in the 2023 Emerging Teams Asia Cup, he was involved in a heated exchange against Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar.

How much of this is natural? “This aggression comes naturally to me. Mein kuch soch kar nahi jata ki yeh karunga (I don’t come into a game thinking I would celebrate in a certain way). Things happen in the heat of the moment. I don’t plan my celebrations.

“I don’t really think too much. I just focus on my job and try to perform for my team. If I start thinking about the ban and the fine, I won’t be able to focus on my cricket. These things keep happening. I can’t let such things divert my focus,” explained Rana, who is glad to have the full support of Gautam Gambhir (mentor). “Gauti bhaiya always supports me and tells me ‘Play the game as you have always played, no need to change yourself.’”

Coming back to his bowling, Rana has dismissed some big names this season. Howbeit, it took him less than a second when asked about his favourite wicket. “My favourite dismissal has to be the wicket of Virat bhaiya. I know there was a bit of controversy attached to that dismissal but it’s a dream wicket for me. Obviously, getting Virat bhaiya out would be a dream for any youngster.” 

Oh yeah, the controversy! It was a high full-toss, which took Kohli by surprise and the 35-year-old ended up chipping it back to Rana. The RCB batter was batting outside the crease and the third umpire suggested that the ball would have been below the waist had Kohli been in his normal stance. But, what was Rana trying to do? “It was a slower one (gone wrong).”

***

Growing up, his dad, Pradeep Rana, played a major role in his development as a professional cricketer. His father always believed in him more than he believed in himself. It was KKR’s first match of the season against SRH, where his parents watched him live for the first time. We all know how that game turned out for the 22-year-old. 

“Mein jo bhi hu apne father ki wajah se hu (everything I am is because of my dad). If my father hadn’t invested time in me, I wouldn’t be here. Once he started investing time in me, my focus has always been on cricket,” said the young pacer. 

The right-armer has also had his fair share of injuries, forcing him to miss Under-14 and 16 cricket. Even before the 2024 IPL, Rana got injured when he was in South Africa with the India A set-up and didn’t get to play a single game. Talking about how he deals with injuries, Rana said: “Of course, you need to work on the physical aspect, but as a player, if you are mentally stronger, you recover slightly quicker. 

“I try to be mentally strong. My dad tells me that ‘a player coming back from an injury often does well’ and I have experienced this firsthand. I was injured for a couple of years and then came back and played under-19 cricket.”

Rana did play Under-19 cricket for Delhi but before making his debut for the senior team, the paceman had already made his IPL debut. Nitish Rana had already suggested his name to the KKR management and when Rasikh Salam injured his back during the IPL 2022, Harshit was serving as Gujarat Titans’ net bowler. The Knight Riders brought him in as replacement and he has been with them since then. 

Rana played two games in 2022 and then went on to make his First-Class and List A debut for Delhi later that year. In his short career, Rana is averaging close to 25 with the ball in all three formats. That’s not it, Rana also has a batting average of 49 in FC cricket. In the last edition of the Duleep Trophy, he smashed 122* off 86 deliveries against North East Zone. 

He is strongly built and can clear the fence with ease, but is yet to get a chance to bat in IPL 2024. “I bat in every training session. Whenever I get an opportunity, I will try to do my best. I know I will bat down the order, so I often focus on power-hitting during practice sessions.”

Not many would have expected Rana to have the type of season he is having. There is one more game to go before the playoffs and KKR are set to end the league stage as the table toppers. His first goal is to help Kolkata win their third IPL trophy and once that is done, he could start focusing on something even bigger. 

“Ever since day one, my aim has been to get that blue jersey and give it to my dad,” concluded Rana. 

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(All stats till May 16, 2024 | Last image credit - KKR)