Name: Nitish Rana
Nitish Rana is an Indian cricketer who plays as a left-handed batting all-rounder for Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has also represented India in ODIs and T20Is.
He represented Delhi at the U-16 and U-19 levels before making his first-class debut for the state team in 2015. Rana made an immediate impact in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy, scoring 539 runs at an average of 49 in his debut season, including two centuries. He displayed his all-round abilities, scoring 105 and taking 5 wickets against Saurashtra.
Over the next few years, Rana established himself as a consistent performer for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. In November 2018, Rana was named the captain of the Delhi Ranji team, succeeding Gautam Gambhir. He led from the front with match-winning knocks like an unbeaten 60 to guide Delhi's chase of 135 against Jharkhand.
Rana's IPL breakthrough came in 2018 when he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Given an extended run, he emerged as a batting mainstay, scoring 333 runs at a strike rate of 134.68 that season.
Rana continued his good IPL form over the next few years for KKR. In IPL 2022, he scored 361 runs at a strike rate of over 145, cementing his reputation as a big-hitting top-order batter.
In IPL 2023, Rana was appointed as the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders team.
Though initially part of India A and U-19 teams, Rana earned his senior national call-up in June 2021 for India's tour of Sri Lanka.
He made his ODI debut on 23 July 2021, scoring 7 runs, and followed it up with his T20I debut a few days later against Sri Lanka.
