Legendary Sunil Gavaskar slammed Harshit Rana’s criticism after the ODI series against Australia. Gavaskar said cricket experts should criticize after and not before a player plays. Rana’s place across the white-ball formats has been questioned by a lot of pundits, even before the series against Australia.

Rana bagged 4-39 in 8.4 overs he bowled in the third ODI at the SCG on Saturday and returned with his best-bowling figures in ODIs. The lanky pacer accounted for Alex Carey, Mitchell Owen, Cooper Connolly, and Josh Hazlewood. Thus, he played a key role in bundling out Australia at 236 and India went on to register a convincing nine-wicket win after fine knocks from Rohit Sharma (121) and Virat Kohli (74).

Sunil Gavaskar said on India Today, “I am so happy to see Harshit Rana getting those four wickets because he has been under fire. That is a little bit hard to understand because at the end of the day, this is our team. And by all means, criticize after but not before. Because by criticizing anybody before, any player, you are actually demoralizing that player.”

“Once the series is over, you can by all means ask why he was picked because then you also have the benefit of hindsight. But once the team is selected, we should all absolutely 100% back the team and want it to win. Because at the end of the day, it is our team, it is India’s team.”

Rana ended the three-match series against Australia as the leading wicket-taker with six wickets at an average of 20.83. The fast bowler from Delhi made the most of his variations throughout the series and also scored a crucial knock of 24 runs off 18 balls in the second game at Adelaide.

Rana will be seen in action in the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia, which will commence on Wednesday.