Harshit Rana embraces all-rounder role after vital contribution against New Zealand

India head coach Gautam Gambhir has an affinity for all-rounders and fast bowler Harshit Rana has confirmed that the team management has asked him to work on improving his batting skills.

Rana played a vital role in India's four-wicket victory in the opening ODI against New Zealand in Vadodara on Sunday, taking a couple of wickets at the top to derail the Kiwis' progress and chipped in with a vital 29 off 23 late in the chase.

Rana batted ahead of an injured Washington Sundar, who suffered from a side strain, putting his availability in doubt for the second ODI on Wednesday.

"The team management wants to groom me as an all-rounder and it is my task to keep working on it," Rana told reporters here. "I am working on it in the nets as well, and it was a matter of confidence which KL (Rahul) bhai helped me with when I went in (to bat). I kept my focus on it and made the runs," he added.

With premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya not available for the ODI series, India's playing eleven featured both Ravindra Jadeja and Washington in the opening ODI, whereas the team combinations in other formats now regularly feature more than one all-rounder.

Both Pandya and Shivam Dube played four games each in India's five-match T20I series against South Africa last month, whereas the playing elevens for the two-Test series which the hosts lost 0-2, featured at least three all-rounders each in both matches including Jadeja, Washington, Axar Patel and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Playing multiple all-rounders in the Test side following the crushing loss was criticised heavily by former Indian pacer and KSCA president Venkatesh Prasad, who had expressed that "the all-rounder obsession is absolute brain-fade".

The idea of having so many all-round players as possible can be gauged with the fact that specialist batters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and even Abhishek Sharma have rolled their arms over for India and they bowl in their domestic appearances as well.

In the build-up to the second ODI against South Africa last month, both Jaiswal and Tilak were seen putting in equal time in the nets to hone their skills as a batter and a bowler.

After he helped India win the Asia Cup T20, the world No 1 T20I bowler Varun Chakravarthy had told the media that the head coach has asked him to work on his batting skills, for bolstering his chances for selection in ODI team where he gets picked on as-per-need basis.

"My team wants me to bat at No 8 as an all-rounder and whatever time I can give to it in the nets, I focus on that. I believe I can score 30-40 runs for the team lower down the order whenever needed and that’s what the team management believes that I can do as well," Rana added.

Rana put on 37 runs for the sixth wicket to stabilise India's innings in the chase with Rahul, after they lost Virat Kohli (93), Jadeja (4) and Shreyas Iyer (49) in quick succession.

"Till Virat bhai was there it felt that the match would end early, maybe with 5-6 overs to spare but a game of cricket can change anytime and you cannot predict it."

When asked if the Indian bowlers struggle to take wickets upfront with the new ball in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Rana retorted by saying the troika of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and he bowled well.

"I don’t know what cricket you are watching, even today if we did not get the (early) wickets, Siraj bhai bowled really well. We did not give away a lot of runs either with the new ball," he said.

"But these things happen, if you do not get wickets early on then you will get them later, which is what we did. There are different phases in ODI cricket."

"I felt that the pitch was slow, there wasn’t much bounce either,” Rana added.