NEW DELHI: The selection of Harshit Rana as a “concussion sub” in place of Shivam Dube infuriated England captain Jos Buttler, but India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel defended the decision, claiming that match referee Javagal Srinath made the final call after they presented the young pacer’s name.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir skillfully employed the rules to substitute Mumbai all-rounder Rana, who bowls at early 120 clicks, for Dube, who reached a half-century, when Dube was hit by Jamie Overton off the penultimate delivery of the Indian innings.
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“As far as I’m aware, Shivam (Dube) obviously took the knock on the head and when he came off the field during the innings break with mild headache symptoms, we took a name forward to the match referee in terms of a suitable substitution.
“From there it’s up to the match referee to make that decision,” Morkel replied when asked about the controversy surrounding Rana.
With a match remaining, the pacer helped India win by 15 runs in Pune on Friday night, capping the T20I series. He took 3/33 on his debut.
“Harshit (Rana) was having dinner, had to get himself ready as quick as possible to get onto the field and bowl and I thought he did an excellent job,” Morkel said.

When questioned about Buttler’s criticism of the replacement for not being like-for-like, Morkel avoided the subject.
“You know, it goes to the powers sort of above me (match referee).
“Match referee, he made the decision, you know, we can only take the name forward and from there it’s out of our hands. We got the green light to go with that and, you know, we gave it an opportunity,” he said.
The bowling unit’s consistency in execution has greatly impressed the former South African pacer, who joined the Indian team management prior to the home season.
“In our planning we do before games, everybody’s contributing in those conversations. But the main thing at the end of the day is to go out and execute,” Morkel said.
“And I think even if we’re under pressure with ball in hand, like tonight, you know, we were under pressure, defending a total there tonight, it was great character shown by this young group,” he said.
England got off to a fast start with 62 runs in Powerplay, but Varun Chakravarthy, Rana, and Ravi Bishnoi demonstrated their skills by defending a total of 181.
“The way we defended tonight, yeah, I’m just very proud of this team. You know, defending a 180 sort of total on a good wicket with a wet outfield is outstanding work.”