Gautam Gambhir (left) and Harshit Rana (screenshot) 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 key to India’s win as he took four for 39 to restrict Australia to 236 after they got off to a great start.
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“Special mention to Harshit, that was an excellent spell,” Gautam Gambhir said in a video released by BCCI.tv.“I mean stay humble, stay grounded, work hard. It’s just the beginning, it’s not the end,” he added.The young pacer had a rocky start to the tour – in Perth and Adelaide – and was back in the limelight when he was picked for the Sydney ODI ahead of left-arm seamer Arshdeep.Click here to watch Gautam Gambhir’s fiery display in the dressing room.But it was head coach Gautam Gambhir’s clear, emphatic warning that drove him forward. The message read: “Do kar, color bahar bitha dunga(Get out or I will make you sit outside the team), Rana’s childhood coach Shravan Kumar told TimesofIndia.com.“First Krishnamachari Srikkanth took up this kid’s case. After retirement, cricketers started making money from their YouTube channels, but please don’t scrutinize any kid who just started. They have the right to guide, scold, but please don’t say anything just to increase the visibility of your YouTube channel,” Shravan said.Srikkanth claimed that Rana was selected 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 drown out the outside noise with his performance. I just said, believe me. I know some cricketers say he is close to Gambhir. But Gambhir knows how to identify talent and he supports them. He has supported a lot of cricketers and they have done wonders for their teams. In fact, he directly scolded Karshit, gave him a bit of a warning,” Phaer said. Dunga.’ It sends a clear message – whoever you are,” said Shravan.“He is 23 early. Let’s give him some time,” Shravan added.Gambhir also highlighted the team’s hunger for a good performance after losing the first two ODIs.
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“We talked about showing up today, we wanted to do something special, and we wanted to be desperate, we wanted to be hungry. We wanted to put our bodies into it. I thought we did everything; we checked all the boxes.”“First of all, I thought the bowlers were excellent. Australia’s start – 63 for no loss after 10 overs – and to restrict them to 237 from there was an outstanding performance,” he said.
