Indian fans have been left in disbelief after Gautam Gambhir’s latest insane strategy has seen Harshit Rana surpass Shivam Dube in the batting order at the MCG after India lost 5 early wickets with less than 50 runs on the board.
India have struggled terribly with the bat after Mitchell Marsh, the Australian skipper, put them into bat first after winning the toss against Suryakumar Yadav. Unlike the first match in Canberra, India have not had a convincing start in the second T20I.
Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav, the two batters who set the tone for India’s innings in the first T20I, were dismissed in no time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. India looked to be in big trouble with five batters back in the dugout, but then came a baffling tactic from Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir.
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After Axar Patel was dismissed in the eighth over of the match due to his lack of game awareness, Indian bowling all-rounder Rana was sent in at No. 1. 7, above World Cup-winning batting all-rounder Shivam Dube.
Dube has played for India for the past three years and was part of the 2024 World Cup-winning squad and the recent Asia Cup. However, Gambhir decided to send Rana ahead of him, perhaps to prove his overall efficiency.
To everyone’s surprise, Rana has batted with utmost caution and has currently scored the second highest score on the leaderboard. At the time of writing this, he was going on a half-century partnership with opener Abhishek Sharma, who hit fifty off just 24 balls.
Shivam Dube is probably booked for some death fireworks
While some have condemned Gautam Gambhir for giving excessive preference to pacer Harshit Rana, some have understood his motive behind this move. Shivam Dube is more known for his long levers towards the end of the innings, which will be crucial at the death.
Furthermore, now that Hazlewood has met its quota of 4 overs, Ellis and Kuhnemann will be the best head-to-head against Dube, who has brought power to shots despite the two bowlers hardly giving any pace to the batters.
After Rana’s invaluable contribution, Dube was released at the right time in the Indian innings. He took the field with 26 balls left in the innings, a perfect time to come in for the death-overs specialist.
Harshit Rana according to Gambhir #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/Lg9asFU8id
— Vikram แꪊꪑꪖ𝘳 🦇🗿 (@printf_meme) October 31, 2025
Incidents that no one would have believed were true if they were not recorded.
Harshit “Bradman” Rana to you. pic.twitter.com/wxH2wfDLLR
— Ismail (@wyd_ismail) October 31, 2025
– No. 3-expert Tilak Varma hits on 5
– Arshdeep Singh will not participate in Games 11
– Yashasvi Jaiswal is not even in the squad
– Sanju Samson is unnecessarily pushed to 3
– Harshit Rana bats ahead of Shivam DubeGautam Gambhir favorism is destroying Indian cricket. pic.twitter.com/XkAtxqgQ7t
— Selfless⁴⁵ (@SelflessCricket) October 31, 2025
Coach Gambhir, when he gets to know Harshit Rana, will bowl as well as bat- pic.twitter.com/AgcNVoAnxc
— TukTuk Academy (@TukTuk_Academy) October 31, 2025
A fifty for Harshit Rana today. 😵 pic.twitter.com/NDD7PRxwhm
— Ankit Choudhary (@Ankit7083) October 31, 2025
Gautam Gambhir sent his KKR Parchi Harshit Rana to bat ahead of Shivam Dube🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/K55hpFIYpb
— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) October 31, 2025
Wtf is gg thinking man, who sends hardit rana for shivam dube???
Seriously dude?????? #INDvsAUS— £^² (@ehsassyyyy) October 31, 2025
WTF Harshit Rana about shivam dube, this gambhir has really gone crazy 😡😡 pic.twitter.com/zFmNDntzI3
— Loyal cricket fan (@ProGamerYouTub4) October 31, 2025
READ ALSO: Josh Hazlewood hits Shubman Gill on the head with brutal bouncer; After a nasty blow, the batter is shaken at MCG
#mad #Gautam #Gambhir #heavy #criticism #promoting #Harshit #Rana #Shivam #Dube #MCG #T20I