I Wouldn’t Be Surprised To See Nitish Rana In Indian T20 squad, Says Ricky Ponting

May 6, 2017 at 6:54 PM

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I Wouldn’t Be Surprised To See Nitish Rana In Indian T20 squad, Says Ricky Ponting

Former Mumbai Indians head coach Ricky Ponting has expressed great belief in the future of his protégé Nitish Rana. According to the Australian legend, Rana would be the next young star to make it to the Indian T20 setup.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in an Indian T20 squad, because that’s generally what they like to do, like with Hardik Pandya; he had a few outstanding performances in the IPL (and was picked), said Ponting speaking with Cricket Australia in a recent interview.

“They like to pick them young and they like to get them in there and you can’t argue with what he’s doing at the moment. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in a T20 team or even a one-day team as well.”

Young talents excite the veterans and Ricky Ponting is no different in that sense. The opportunity to get a close look on Rana as a coach and mentor arrived in 2015-16 when he joined Mumbai Indians as the head coach.

Rana’s abilities made Ponting keep a close eye on the youngster. The faith slowly developed and the 42-year-old became assured that left-hander was meant to be a future star.

“Out of all the batsmen we had in that first year, Nitish Rana was the one I wanted the most. I loved the way he played, I loved his flair, and he hits the ball in slightly unusual areas as well.”

“He hits the ball very well over the off-side through backwards point off the quicks and against the spinners he uses his feet and hits very well through the leg side. He’s a good talent.”

But, despite gaining the confidence of Ponting, Rana had to wait for his opportunity to arrive for some time. He was picked by the franchise in 2015 but did not get any games, thanks to the MI think tank’s careful selection of promising players that created a sort of talent overflow in the franchise.

Regular opportunities did not arrive in the 2016 season as well, as he warmed the bench for the most part of the season before being introduced in the latter stages of the tournament, featuring in Mumbai’s final four matches.

“He was probably a little unlucky not to play a little bit earlier,” Ponting explained.

“But we had guys like (Rohit) Sharma, (Ambati) Rayudu, (Jos) Buttler, (Kieron) Pollard and these guys, and (Parthiv) Patel and Lendl Simmons opening so it was hard to fit him into the lineup when most of those guys were quite consistent.

“So he was unlucky. But we unleashed him in the back end of last season and he played a couple of sensational knocks.”

He has got his due credit this season, however. The left-hander has been the first-choice batsman in the top order and has justified his selection by becoming the highest run-getter for his franchise this year with 312 runs in 10 matches. He started IPL 10 with heaps of runs, registering three half-centuries in his first six innings to catch everyone’s attention.

When asked about his ability to play Test cricket, the Australian legend suggested Rana would need to improve technically to make an impact in the longest format.

“He’s got a very good domestic record in one-day and four-day cricket,” Ricky Ponting said.

“It probably might take him a little bit longer to develop his Test cricket – he’s got a few things to work on there, particularly against fast bowling … all young Indians have the same deficiencies but I can see him continuing to improve.

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