Courtesy: BCCI/IPL/RR
Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Nitish Rana appeared in a podcast recently and revealed he idealised former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, who was a part of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from 2008 to 2010 in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rana's favourite player was Ganguly while his father and brother were huge fans of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid respectively. Ahead of RR’s IPL 2025 match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mohali on April 5, Rana appeared in an interview with FanCode and also divulged how there used to be a fight between him and his brother over their favourite players’ performances and the 32-year-old, during his childhood days, also used to lock himself in the room and cry when his favourite player couldn’t do better in comparison to Dravid.
"Dad was a huge Sachin Tendulkar fan. I loved Sourav Ganguly and my brother liked Rahul Dravid sir. So, in our house, whenever India played, fights were inevitable. Someone or the other out of the three of us had to get upset or angry. Because it was very rare that all three of them scored together. What used to happen with me was because Rahul sir was going through a career peak, I and my brother had a lot of fights. We could obviously say nothing to our father," said Rana.
The 31-year-old added, "Things like 'Your player did not score runs, mine did'. I would get very agitated and cry in my room thinking 'How did Sourav Ganguly get. Not today, I needed to show my brother'. On the other hand, Rahul Dravid would score 100s after 100s. So my childhood memories are these."
RR will expect Rana to come heavily on PBKS bowlers on April 5 in IPL
Rana displayed belligerence with his bat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Guwahati and struck his 19th IPL fifty. Riding on his incredible 81 off 36, Rajasthan won their first game of the season by six runs. The southpaw also got the player of the match award for his stunning innings.
RR will next square off against PBKS in Mohali and the Pink Army will expect their left-handed batter to hammer bowlers mercilessly and halt the hosts’ bandwagon. Punjab won their first two games in a dominating style, and playing in their den on Saturday, they will strive to pound RR as well to win three consecutive matches.
