“It was not his fault” - Former England cricketer opens up on concussion sub controversy in IND vs ENG 2025 4th T20I
Former cricketer Kevin Pietersen was surprised as Harshit Rana replaced Shivam Dube as the concussion substitute in the fourth T20I between India and England on Friday, January 31. He, however, pointed out that it wasn’t Rana’s fault and commended him for his excellent bowling, as India beat England by 15 runs to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
The remarks came as Rana finished with figures of 3/33 on his debut. Pietersen wants the pacer to play in the XI for the fifth and final game in Mumbai on Sunday, February 2. 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.”
The cricketer-turned-commentator continued:
“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 assessed a couple of the batters. The way that he assessed the conditions. He went out wide on a couple of occasions. So, yeah, he was brilliant,” he added.
Rana recently bagged four wickets on his Test debut against Australia during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in Perth, the only game where India won in the five-match series.
“Harshit Rana was actually a nice bowler to face on that wicket” – Kevin Pietersen on where England faltered in 4th T20I
Kevin Pietersen suggested that Harshit Rana was a good proposition for England batters had they not thrown away their wickets to spinners. The 44-year-old said in the same interaction:
“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,” Pietersen added.
The spinners picked up six wickets against England. Ravi Bishnoi was the leading wicket-taker for the hosts, returning with three scalps.
Varun Chakravarthy bagged two wickets, both in the same over. Meanwhile, Axar Patel picked up one wicket.