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“It was not his fault” – Kevin Pietersen opens up on concussion sub controversy in IND vs ENG 2025 4th T20I
By SMCS - Feb 1, 2025 12:40 pm
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Former cricketer Kevin Pietersen was surprised as India speedster Harshit Rana replaced all-rounder Shivam Dube as the concussion substitute in the fourth T20I between India and England on Friday, January 31 as well. He, however, added that it wasn’t Rana’s fault and praised him for his excellent bowling, as India beat England by 15 runs to take a 3-1 lead in the five-match series as well.

Harshot Rana
Harshot Rana bowled a good spell

He told Star Sports: “For his cricket, he was outstanding and it was not his fault that he was the one who ended up where he went to. Those are not the decisions that he makes. It’s just him putting his hand up and saying, ‘Hey, I’ll replace Shivam Dube, Can I do it?’. Yes, you can, no you can’t, yes, you can, he got it. He went there and bowled his heart out and he bowled India to a victory.”

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“Chuckles [on like-to-like replacement]. His [Harshit Rana] performance was great. I said that now on commentary just finishing off. I thought that he gets his length straight into the hat for a full game on Sunday in Mumbai, the Wankhede Stadium. So, I am not going to one-second say that his performance was poor. I thought that he delivered his skill excellently. I thought that he was brilliant in the way he asses a couple of the batters. The way that he asses the conditions. He went out wide on a couple of occasions. So, yeah, he was brilliant,” he further added.

Harshot Rana
Harshit Rana

However, Rana recently claimed four wickets on his Test debut against Australia during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Perth. Kevin Pietersen stated that Harshit Rana was a good option for England batters had they not got out to spinners.

“The batting was not smart. It wasn’t clever and I think they’ve lost the game wholeheartedly because of the decision that was made. I think Harshit Rana was actually a nice bowler to face on that wicket. He really was. They put themselves under tremendous pressure because they got out to the spinners. And the shot selection for Brook there, a guy who has experience now, test double hundreds, plays a lot of cricket around the world. Yes, he was under pressure and he came and he got his fifty but you got to try and close the game out there,” Kevin Pieterson concluded.