Gautam Gambhir’s stern ‘two-word’ message to Harshit Rana after Sydney ODI | Cricket News
Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir showed tough love to Harshit Rana after the youngster’s heroics in the third ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).Harshit was pivotal in India’s win as he picked up four for 39 and restricted Australia to 236 after they had a great start.
“Special mention to Harshit, that was an outstanding spell,” Gautam Gambhir said in a video posted by BCCI.tv.“What I want to say is stay humble, stay grounded, keep working hard. It’s just the start, it’s not the end,” he added.The young pacer had a rocky start to the tour — in Perth and Adelaide — and when he was picked for the Sydney ODI ahead of left-arm seamer Arshdeep, he once again found himself in the spotlight.Click here to watch Gautam Gambhir’s fiery dressing room speech.But it was head coach Gautam Gambhir’s clear, stern warning that pushed him forward. The message was: “Perform kar, warna bahar bitha dunga” [Perform or I will make you sit outside the team], Rana’s childhood coach Shravan Kumar told TimesofIndia.com.“First, Krishnamachari Srikkanth took the case of this kid. After retirement, cricketers have started their YouTube channels to earn, but please don’t scrutinise any kid who has just started. They have the right to guide, scold, but please don’t say anything just to increase your YouTube channel’s visibility,” Shravan said.Srikkanth had alleged that Rana was picked in the ODI squad for the tour of Australia for being Gambhir’s ‘yes man’.“He called me and told me that he wanted to shut the outside noise with his performance. I just said, believe in yourself. I know some cricketers say he is close to Gambhir. But Gambhir knows how to identify talent, and he backs them. He has backed a lot of cricketers, and they have done wonders for their teams. He, in fact, scolded Harshit badly. He told him directly, ‘Perform kar, warna bahar bitha dunga.’ He sends a clear message — whoever you are,” Shravan said.“Rana is 23. Let’s give him some time,” Shravan added.Gambhir also highlighted the team’s hunger to do well after losing the first two ODIs.
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“We spoke about turning up today, wanting to do something special, and we wanted to be desperate, we wanted to be hungry. We wanted to put our bodies on the line. I thought we did everything; we ticked all the boxes.“Especially to start with, I thought the bowlers were outstanding. The kind of start Australia had — 63 for no loss after 10 overs — and from there to restricting them to 237 was an outstanding effort,” he said.
