Knight Riders (KKR) batter Nitish Rana said that he wants to break into the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup to be held later this year in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
Rana played 2 T20Is and an ODI for the Men in Blue back in 2021 against Sri Lanka at the RPS in Colombo. After failing to reach double-digit scores even once, Rana lost his place in the team.
However, the left-hander sounded confident of finding his place back. The southpaw said that he has the potential to score over 600 runs for the Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
“Everyone wants to play for the country and many players will have it in the back of their mind, but we have to stay in the present. I too want to get selected for the World T20 squad, but at this moment I am thinking only about the IPL. I believe I can get 600 runs in this tournament and I will be aiming for that,” Rana told The Times of India (TOI).
Nitish Rana’s IPL career in brief
Rana started his IPL career in 2016 while playing for Mumbai Indians (MI). After representing the 5-time champions for 2 seasons, he moved to the Knight Riders ahead of the IPL 2018.
From 2017 to 2022, Rana scored runs in the 300s with 2 to 3 half-centuries every season. But last year, for the first time, he breached the 400-run mark.
In 14 matches in 2023, Rana scored 413 runs at an average of 31.77 and a strike-rate of 140.96 with 3 fifties to show for his efforts.
Rana has a big task in hand when KKR start their IPL 2024 campaign against Pat Cummins’ Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on March 23 at Eden Gardens.
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