Ravichandran Ashwin Softens Stance, Steps Up To Support Harshit Rana Amid Criticism: 'No Player Should Be Attacked Below The Belt'

Harshit Rana's selection in the Australian series has been the subject of criticism. The youngster has been picked up in both the ODI and T20I series to be played in Australia, starting from October 19.

Ravichandran Ashwin Defended Harshit Rana Amid Criticism

Harshit's inclusion in the ODI squad has been particularly called out, and former selector Kris Srikkanth even labelled him as a “Constant Yes Man” of head coach Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir came back heavily and the critics and defended the KKR pacer strongly during the post-match press conference of the India vs West Indies 2nd Test match.

Now, Ravichandran Ashwin has also come out in support of the youngster. Ashwin, who also questioned Rana's selection, has now softened his stance and has asked people not to attack the player personally. He insisted criticism should be fair and it shouldn't have any personal angle from anywhere.

On his YouTube channel, he said, “I have always reiterated that no player should be attacked below the belt. When the attack becomes too personal, the genre changes. I would like to talk about Sanjay Manjrekar, who has criticised me throughout my career. But I have never held any grudge against him. What they say might be right or wrong, as long as the criticism doesn’t get personal, I am fine with it.”

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All Focus Will Be On Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma

Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma started practising, aiming for a return for the first ODI match against Australia. Both the players haven't played a competitive match for India since the Champions Trophy final, and the onus will be on them to deliver on their return for Men In Blue.

There have been severe chatters regarding their ODI future after Shubman Gill was handed the mantle in the limited-over format. Both the stalwarts have looked fit and fine and if all goes well they are very likely to feature in all three matches against Australia.

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