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Biography

A career that threatened to fall away was resurrected by a successful 2017 IPL campaign. That certainly helped Delhi batsman Nitish Rana emerge as one of the brightest prospects in Indian cricket. A modest showing in the 2016-17 Ranji season where he scored 404 runs in 8 games at an average of a little over 33 had not helped his cause. The Vijay Hazare competition also saw him being dropped after three failures but came the runs in IPL 10.

The IPL couldn't have come at a better time for the young batsman as he rekindled his batting form with a string of match-winning scores at the start of the season, a prime reason for the Mumbai Indians to make a head-start to their eventual victorious campaign. The batsman later tapered off and even lost his spot in the team, but the two-time IPL medal winner surely got his career back on track.

The following season at the domestic level was much better for the southpaw. He churned out 613 runs in 8 games at an average of 55.72 in the 2017-18 Ranji season. And was snaffled up by Kolkata Knight Riders before the mega auction ahead of IPL XI.

IPL through the years

A left-handed batsman with a silken touch, Nitish Rana has been an vital cog in Kolkata Knight Riders' batting strategy, especially at the top of the order. His Indian Premier League (IPL) journey started with the Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2015. In a team that was packed with an overdose of talent, Rana had to wait for his chances, which came in spurts in 2016 and capitulated him into fame in 2017 - where he made 333 runs from 13 matches.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) came calling after he was released from the MI squad - ahead of the 2018 auctions and since then, he has become an integral part of the set-up, grabbing headlines with his match-winning knocks. If there's one negative aspect about Rana - it's his inability to convert his start into a big knock and his tendency to fall away as the season approaches its finale - it happened in MI in 2017 and repeated with KKR in 2018, thereby not letting the talented batsman to knock the doors on national selection.

Nitish Rana's start in IPL 2022 wasn't a pleasant one as he got out cheaply in the first four games of the season. The left-hander did get a few starts thereafter, however, he could only score a couple of fifties in the 14 innings he played in IPL 2022. Rana's highest score of 57 came against the Delhi Capitals, but KKR lost that match as there were hardly any contributions from other batters. Nitish Rana has been appointed KKR's captain for IPL 2023 due to Shreyas Iyer's absence, and the left-hander from Delhi will be looking forward to grab this opportunity with both hands. Can KKR prosper under Rana's leadership? Only time will tell..