Kevin Pietersen lauds 'brilliant' Harshit Rana despite on-air outrage over concussion-sub controversy: 'Not his fault…'
Pietersen was highly impressed with Harshit Rana's performance and said he assessed the conditions well to prepare his plans to outclass the English batters.
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen was not impressed with Team India's ploy of using Harshit Rana for using as Shivam Dube's concussion substitute but he was all praise for the young pacer's performance. The 23-year-old pacer made his T20I debut after being chosen as the substitute for Dube in the second innings after the latter got hit on the helmet in the final over of India's innings.
Rana had a memorable night despite playing only in the second half of the match. He claimed three wickets to derail England's chase. He was instrumental in sending Jos Buttler back when he caught the skipper at short thirdman off Bishnoi and later got his first T20 wicket for India in Liam Livingstone. Rana also dismissed Jacob Bethel and Jamie Overton to kill England's hopes.
Pietersen was mighty impressed with Rana's performance and said he assessed the conditions well to prepare his plans to outclass the English batters.
"No, Harshit's performance was great. I thought that he delivered his skill excellently. I thought that he was brilliant in the way that he assessed a couple of the batters. The way that he assessed the conditions where he went out wide and on a couple of occasions. He was brilliant," Pietersen said while speaking on Star Sports after the Pune T20I.
Earlier, Dube was the stand-out performer for India with the bat as he scored 53 runs from 34 balls, embellished with 7 fours and 2 sixes. He put up a show and smashed his fifty in the 19th over and was also named Player of the Match. In India's last over, Dube took a hit on his helmet from Overton and walked off owing to concussion. In a debatable decision, the batting allrounder was replaced later by medium-pace bowler Rana when the rules say like-for-like substitutions.
‘Harshit Rana went there and he bowled his heart…’
The former English captain said that it was not Rana's fault how the concussion substitute panned out amidst the criticism India has been facing for using him a the pacer as a like-to-like replacement for Dube.
"And for his cricket, he was outstanding, and it's not his fault that he was the one who ended up being the concussion substitute. He went there and he bowled his heart and he bowled to a victory," Pietersen added.
