Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra defended Harshit Rana amid his continued trolling. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that Harshit does his job with the ball and “does what he can” with the bat. Harshit was sent to bat ahead of Shivam Dube in the third T20I against England. He is often trolled on social media, but he has delivered the results more often than not. “Harshit Rana needs to be spoken about. We troll him a lot, but Harshit Rana is doing the job whenever he gets opportunities. He does the job in bowling. He bowls the difficult overs. He comes and delivers. He packs a punch. He had almost won the Ireland match with his batting,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“So, he is doing his bit. He bowls with the new and old ball, and if you send him up the order in batting, he does what he can. Please cut him some slack. His being selected is not his mistake. Talk to the selectors if you have a problem with his selection. However, if a player does well, we all must stand up and clap. He is unnecessarily trolled a lot,” he added.
Harshit earned his maiden India call-up following IPL 2024, where he played for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He made his India debut in the Perth Test against Australia in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Harshit had played two Tests in his career.
He made his ODI and T20I debuts in the home series against England in 2025. He was a member of the 2025 Champions Trophy-winning team. Harshit was ruled out of the 2026 T20 World Cup due to a knee injury that he suffered during the warm-up game. He has 26 wickets in 14 ODIs and 16 wickets in 14 T20Is.
Harshit Rana will be in action again
Harshit Rana has cemented his spot in the playing XI in white-ball cricket and he will be in action in the fourth T20I against England on Thursday (July 9). He made a memorable return to international cricket and took a three-fer against Ireland in the first T20I of the two-match series. He scalped one wicket in the second game and also scored 21 runs. Harshit has three wickets in two innings against England in the five-match T20I series
