Rana could have made his debut in a T20I series against Bangladesh last month but suffered viral fever. “It was very difficult for me,” Rana said after the day’s match. “But like I said, Gauti [coach Gautam Gambhir] bhaiyya He would keep telling me to bide my time and when it comes, I should do the best I can for the country. And I talk to my dad before every game day and he told me that the day God plans for you to play, you will play. Don’t worry too much.”
“I had seen this [Australia vs India] alone on TV, getting up early and watching it with my dad. So this is something very important to me.”
Rana was a crucial member of the KKR team that won the IPL earlier this year. It seemed like he was made for white-ball cricket with its variations of pace. But India’s red-ball team saw something in him, potentially during the simulation match against India A at the WACA, where he showed his willingness to hit the ground hard and bowl precise, accurate spells.
Rana was able to achieve that form against Australia in Perth and took three wickets in the first innings to help Australia remove 104 and give India a 46-run lead. His first wicket was Travis Head and he played a beautiful delivery, angled around the wicket and holding his line to hit the outside edge of the bat and shave the outside edge of the stump.
“Personally, I am very happy with my performance and even happier with the way the team has performed,” Rana said. “If you talk about that wicket especially, there was a discussion in the team about how to prepare and dismiss him. The plan was to attack his stumps, and I bowled a good ball and got a wicket.
“We have an extra bounce when we come here and play on these wickets, but we have to make sure we don’t get carried away. If we focus on bowling those good lines and lengths, it will help us. So that was the focus to not get carried away.”
