During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Harshit Rana and Mitchell Starc had a hilarious on-field exchange that went viral on social media. It happened during the first match in Perth. Rana, known for his pace, was trying to test Starc, who was batting lower down the order, with a series of short-pitched deliveries.
Starc, who knew Rana from their time together with the Kolkata Knight Riders, responded verbally. The stump microphone caught Starc’s words, which served as a reminder to Rana as he completed his follow-through. It was in the 30th over of Australia’s first innings, Starc was heard saying, “Harshit, I bowl faster than you.” Starc didn’t stop there; he also told Rana to expect the same treatment when it’s his turn to bat. He finished by saying, I’ve got a long memory. Rana just smiled.
The exchange became famous because of the friendly rivalry between two players who had played together in the IPL. Recently, Harshit Rana shared his side of the story and the involvement of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, who were fielding in the slips. According to Rana, they egged him on.
I bowled a bouncer to him after a while and one of them hit his helmet. When he said something, I laughed it off. But as I was walking back to start my run-up, I thought, I’m dead, he’s going to bowl bouncers at me now. Then Virat and KL, who were behind me, were yelling, Keep hitting him, keep hitting him, hit him right there! I thought to myself, You guys can handle him easily but I’m the one who’s going to get hit on the head! Harshit said during the BeerBiceps podcast.
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He continued, He actually hit me on the helmet in the second Test.
India won the first Test by 295 runs but couldn’t sustain the momentum and lost three of the next four matches and with that the series. This series brought about many changes in the Indian Test team. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from the format and Shubman Gill was made the new captain. Harshit’s journey with the Indian team has been a rollercoaster. He got chances to play in Australia where he did well. But since then he hasn’t been a regular member of the team.
In the recent Test series against England, he was included in the squad as a backup player. He was later dropped. In the limited-overs format he is a squad member and was part of the team that won the Champions Trophy.
