Harshit Rana is kept on in England as a backup

By
Jay Rock
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5

At this point, Harishit Rana, who has been kept in England, is merely an unofficial part of the Indian team. Rana is remaining with the Indian side as a stand-in for a few players who are reportedly experiencing some niggles, a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official has informed to Cricbuzz. Officially, he hasn’t been enlisted in the team yet.

Although the identity of the players with niggles has not been made public, this website has established that Rana (23), who has played in two Test matches, five ODIs, and one T20I, has only been kept on as a backup. On Tuesday, June 17, he traveled from London with the Indian squad to Leeds, the location of the first Test match.

“Please don’t count him as an official member of the squad as yet,” the official said.

There are two pace-bowling all-rounders, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shardul Thakur, and five like-for-like specialist fast bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, and Arshdeep Singh, in the 18-man touring team captained by Shubman Gill.

Rana participated in an intra-squad game in Beckenham recently and was a member of the India A team that played two games against the England Lions. It is thought that the other Indian team members were returning home.

Gambhir departs for England

Gautam Gambhir is anticipated to return to the team shortly, most likely on Tuesday. The head coach is believed to have left the nation’s capital for London on Tuesday morning after returning home to New Delhi from the UK owing to a family issue. He had not yet returned to the team at the time this article was filed, but it is anticipated that he will do so soon.

The first Test between England and India, for the newly-named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, will start on Friday (June 20) in Leeds. There will be four other Tests, at Edgbaston (from July 2), at Lord’s (from July 10), at Old Trafford in Manchester (from July 23) and finally at the Oval (from July 31).

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