The 22-year-old India National Cricket Team right-arm pacer Harshit Rana has credited the stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah and former captain Virat Kohli for his success in the ongoing first Test of the five-match series against Australia National Cricket Team.

Harshit Rana is featuring in his first-ever Test match for India at the Perth Stadium in the high-profile Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

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Harshit Rana picked as India’s third pacer for the Perth Test

Harshit Rana was picked as the third pace-bowling option by the India team management for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 opener.

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, being the two seniors, automatically selected themselves in the playing XI, and the battle was between Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, and Akash Deep for the third seamer’s slot.

Although Krishna and Akash had prior Test cricket experience, Indian team management decided to go with Harshit, and the youngster was handed his debut cap.

He looked good with the ball and bowled tight lines and lengths. In the first innings, Rana picked up a 3-wicket haul, including the wicket of India’s nemesis Travis Head. Overall, he bowled 15.2 overs and conceded 48 runs.

Jassi bhai (Jasprit Bumrah) kept telling me what to do and Virat bhai also gave advice – Harshit Rana

Speaking at a press conference after the end of the play on Day 2, the 22-year-old revealed that Bumrah and Kohli kept giving him advice, which helped him a lot.

“Jassi bhai (Jasprit Bumrah) kept telling me what to do and Virat bhai also gave advice. These things helps a lot. Jassi Bhai or Virat bhai, whoever came on, they kept giving me inputs as to what should be done in bowling, where to put the ball, where not to put it. So that thing brought a different confidence in myself that ‘yes they are telling me then I will do well’,” Rana said.

He also admitted that the dominating performance by Jasprit Bumrah with the ball at the start made things easier for him. Rana said:

“His spell made things easier for me. I became calmer. Jassi bhaiya always creates pressure from one end, and that makes it easier for the bowler at the other end.”

The idea was to attack the stumps and I got the wicket – Harshit Rana

The explosive batsman Travis Head has played several sensational knocks against India and there was a possibility of him troubling India once again in the Perth Test.

However, Harshit Rana didn’t let that happen and on the first ball of the 12th over, he rattled the stumps of the batter with a brilliant delivery.

Meanwhile, Rana revealed that he planned to attack the stumps of the batter, and it brought him success.

“The idea was to attack the stumps and I got the wicket. In the team meeting, we had made some plans, and I stuck to it,” Harshit told the media.

While talking about his debut, the pacer revealed that the team management informed him of the news a day before the Test match, and he got quite emotional.

“I got to know on the previous day of the Test and I did cry after making a speech in the meeting,” he said.