Used to lock my room and cry after Sourav Ganguly’s dismissal: KKR’s Nitish Rana


Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) middle-order batsman Nitish Rana has revealed that he was a big Sourav Ganguly fan and would often lock himself in his room after the dismissal of the former captain. The 26-year-old revealed that there used to be a “fight” in his family over the former India legends Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

“We used to have fight in our family. My brother was a Rahul Dravid fan, I was a Sourav Ganguly fan and my father adored Sachin Tendulkar. My father would tell me something every time Ganguly used to get out. I would run to my room and lock it and then cry and get angry,” Nitish Rana said.

Nitish Rana also talked about his IPL dreams and said that he would go to Arun Jaitley Stadium to see Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, Virender Sehwag and Ab de Villiers. The Delhi batsman added that he used to think that it would be same to not watch these legends live from the ground.

“I never thought that I can be a part of IPl. For 4 or 5 seasons I used to got to Feroz Shah Kotla stadium to watch matches because I liked Akshay Kumar and he was with Delhi Daredevils back then. I used to like AB de Villiers and even Gautam Gambhir was in Delhi then. Virender Sehwag was also there. I used to think if one hasn’t seen them play, then they have seen nothing.”

Nitish Rana, who represented Mumbai Indians in the starting phase of his IPL career talked about his journey with the franchise. Rana said he had a good Ranji season and was expecting to be picked by an IPL team but when his friend gave him the news during a match in 2016, he couldn’t believe him.

“When I called for drinks, I was told that I’ve been picked by Mumbai Indians. I couldn’t – in fact, didn’t – believe it. Perhaps my friend was taking a joke too far. And then, when he insisted, I knew he wasn’t kidding,” Nitish Rana told Cricbuzz.

Rana, who has played 96 T20 matches in his career till now, beautifully described the moment when Sachin Tendulkar noticed him for the first time. Rana said that Tendulkar noticing him meant a lot for me and gave him the belief that he was on the right track.

“My friend overheard a conversation between Sachin Tendulkar and the Mumbai Indians manager Rahul Sanghvi, and told me that I had caught Sachin sir’s notice. He asked ‘Who’s this boy?’. He had clearly taken notice of me. That felt really good.”

Also, Nitish Rana mentioned about the pep talk he got from former Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting. Rana asserted that the confidence of Ricky Ponting in him changed his career graph.

“Just don’t defend. You have the ability to hit the ball. Just hit the ball. Hard,” Ponting had told Rana.

In the next match, Nitish Rana went on to score a 36-ball 70 against a seasoned Gujarat Lions bowling attack.

Notably, Nitish Rana was part of Mumbai Indians setup when they won the IPL trophy in 2017. Rana had smashed 333 runs in 13 matches in that IPL edition.

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