“His numbers are not flattering” - Ex-Indian cricketer slams Harshit Rana’s Asia Cup 2025 selection

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned the selection committee for including the seamer Harshit Rana in the Indian T20I squad for the Asia Cup 2025 campaign in the United Arab Emirates.

Notably, Rana made his T20I debut against England earlier this year as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube, scalping three wickets. Moreover, he also had a decent IPL 2025 season for the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise, scalping 15 wickets from 13 games.

“Harshit Rana’s case is very interesting. His case needs to be discussed because he came as a concussion replacement for Shivam Dube once, picked up three wickets as well, and became the Player of the Match, which was brilliant, but what about before and after that?” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel. 

“The last IPL was extremely ordinary. His performances have not been very good. His numbers are not flattering. It doesn’t seem like his numbers are strong enough to deserve a place in the side,” he added.

Furthermore, the former batter also felt that Rana might not play all the games in the Asia Cup 2025 campaign and he added that Rana might get selected in the XI whenever Jasprit Bumrah requires rest to manage his workload.

“The truth is also that he won’t get to play all matches. In fact, he might get to play even one match when Bumrah isn’t available,” Chopra said.

“If he isn’t getting a chance to play, you would say that whoever is sitting out doesn’t make a difference. However, if you see the recent record, you will find that Prasidh Krishna should have got a chance, or you could have thought about rewarding Mohammed Siraj. But the team has once again gone towards Harshit,” added Chopra.

India squad for Asia Cup 2025: Surya Kumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Reserves: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, and Dhruv Jurel.

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