Hyderabad: Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee announced the Indian squad for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka on Thursday and Harshit Rana and Riyan Parag received their maiden ODI call-up.
Harshit shared a heartfelt post on his Instagram handle after the selection. In the post uploaded by the Indian cricketer, his dad was seen donning the jersey of the Indian team and Harshit lifted him. The post was captioned "This belongs to you. Love you dad."
Harshit was part of the Indian squad for the first two T20Is against Zimbabwe recently but didn’t get any opportunity to feature in the Playing XI. He thanked India's head coach Gautam Gambhir for playing a role in shaping his career.
"If my outlook towards the game has changed, a lot of it has got to do with Gauti bhaiyya's (Gautam Gambhir) presence in the KKR dressing room and how he changed my mindset. At the elite level, you require skills but more than skills you require the heart to handle the pressure. Gauti Bhaiyya would always tell me 'Mere ko tere pe trust hai. Tu match jeetake aayega'. (I trust you, you can win the match)," Harshit told PTI.
Harshit played a key role for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) title-winning run in the IPL 2024 under the mentorship of Gautam Gambhir. The pacer has picked 13 wickets across 19 fixtures and has been associated with the franchise since 2022.
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