IPL 2025: Harshit Rana missing Gautam Gambhir’s ‘aura’

New Delhi: Harshit Rana’s meteoric rise in Indian cricket is inseparable from his relationship with former Kolkata Knight Riders team mentor Gautam Gambhir. Rana’s breakthrough season at KKR came last year, when Gambhir played a pivotal role in harnessing his potential.
IPL-2024 season saw Rana pick 19 wickets in 13 matches, emerging as a key architect of the team’s title-winning campaign. He didn’t look back, subsequently making his India debut across all three formats in the past six months. However, with Gambhir not there in the KKR backroom staff this IPL season, Rana is missing his presence.

“The support staff is basically the same and even (Abhishek) Nayar bhai is back. But, there was a thrill factor (associated with Gambhir) that I miss a little – speaking just for myself, not anyone else,” Rana said on Monday. “I wasn’t talking about anything personal. But you also know that he (Gambhir) has an aura, the way he comes and takes the team along.
I was just talking about that.” Rana has repeatedly acknowledged that Gambhir’s guidance went beyond technical advice. “If my outlook towards the game has changed, a lot of it has got to do with Gauti bhaiyya’s presence in the KKR dressing room and how he changed my mindset.

At the elite level, you (do) require skills but more than skills, you require the heart to handle the pressure,” Rana had said. Although Rana has taken 11 wickets in nine matches for KKR this season so far, he has been expensive, going at 9.48 runs per over.

“I’m not that happy with my performance. I’m not getting what I want. I hope that in the next five games, I’ll do better. I have to focus hard,” he said. On reverse swing, Rana said, “Reverse swing has become an important factor this season since we can use saliva now. It is definitely helping bowlers perform much better in the death overs.”