Gautam Gambhir's favorite Harshit Rana removed from India squad for New Zealand series

Indian Team is set to release Indian pacer Harshit Rana from the set-up for the India vs New Zealand Test series. Harshit Rana is one of the net bowlers for the Indian Team in the ongoing New Zealand tour of India 2024.

Rana will travel back to play for Delhi Team for the next match in Ranji Trophy 2024-25. Notably, it is a must-win game for Delhi Team against Assam.

India vs New Zealand 2nd Test is underway at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss and opted to bat first in the match.

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Harshit Rana set to lead Delhi's pace attack in Ranji Trophy 2024

The event occurred after DDCA (Delhi District Cricket Association) requested BCCI to release net bowler Harshit Rana from the India squad. Interestingly, Delhi's other star pacer Navdeep Saini is busy in India A's campaign against Australia A.

Delhi will face Assam in their next encounter of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25. The match starts on Saturday, October 26 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Both teams are part of Group D in the Elite round. In their previous games, Delhi's matches against Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh ended in draws.

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Delhi's last two games in Ranji Trophy 2024-25 ended in a draw

With 2 draw games in 2 matches, Delhi is stationed at the 5th spot out of 8 teams in the Elite Group D points table in Ranji Trophy 2025. They need a turnaround in the next games to finish in the top spot in the points table in their pool.

Therefore, they need a powerful pacer like Harshit Rana to lead their pace attack in the upcoming games. The top teams of the Elite Group will move to the next round in Plate. The best performers of the Plate Round will grab a place in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 final, set to take place in January next year.

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Rana was part of IND vs BAN T20I series

Notably, Harshit Rana was also part of the India vs Bangladesh T20I series recently. However, he did not play in any of the three games as India grabbed a clean sweep in the series under skipper Suryakumar Yadav.

Rana rose to the limelight after IPL 2024. The right-arm pacer was one of the top pacers for Kolkata Knight Riders in the league.

KKR, with skipper Shreyas Iyer and mentor Gautam Gambhir, won the IPL title for the third time after complete dominance over the opposition throughout the tournament.

After the success of the Kolkata Knight Riders Team in IPL 2024, Harshit Rana got a national call-up. Notably, Gautam Gambhir was also picked as India's new head coach after his success with KKR as the mentor. The former KKR skipper has led Team India in a few series so far with the assistance of Rohit Sharma.