Gautam Gambhir finally reveals the reason behind his Harshit Rana backing

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has finally broken the silence about his constant backing of Harshit Rana across three formats of the game. Notably, his comments came right from India’s 2-1 ODI series win over South Africa at home.

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Speaking at the post-series press conference, Gambhir asserted that he is seeing Harshit as a long-term No. 8 batting solution, giving the proper balance to the playing XI, keeping the ICC ODI World Cup 2027 in mind.

"That's one of the reasons why we are trying to probably develop someone like Harshit, who can actually bat at 8 and contribute with a bat at No. 8. That's how we need to find the balance, because come South Africa in two years' time, we would be needing three proper seamers as well," Gambhir said in the press conference.

"And if he can continue to develop as a bowling allrounder, it's going to give us a massive boost. Because obviously with Jasprit Bumrah coming back, and what we saw of Arshdeep [Singh], Prasidh [Krishna] and Harshit in this series, [it] was incredible,” he added.

"All these three guys do not have a lot of experience under their belts, especially in the 50-over format. They've hardly played less than 15 ODIs, all these three bowlers, but they've done a fabulous job. So I feel that if we can develop someone like Harshit at No. 8, who can contribute with the bat, I think it is going to give us the right balance as well. Let's see. I think it's still a long way," Gambhir stated.

While Rana started the three-match ODI series against South Africa with decent figures of 3/65, he couldn't create a major impact in the last two ODIs, finishing with the figures of 1/70 and 0/44. Rana would be next seen playing the five-match ODI series against South Africa, starting on Tuesday, December 9, in Cuttack.

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