Rana’s rise no surprise: Ponting

He oversaw his development at Mumbai Indians and now Ricky Ponting believes young gun Nitish Rana is set to take the next step and represent his country.

Rana began IPL10 in a blaze of runs, posting thee half-centuries in his first six innings to turn heads as one of the surprise packets of the tournament.

But Ponting, who was in charge at Mumbai in 2015-16, had earmarked the aggressive left-hander as a future star of the game two years ago.

"Out of all the batsmen we had in that first year, Nitish Rana was the one I wanted the most," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"I loved the way he played, I loved his flair, and he hits the ball in slightly unusual areas as well.

"He hits the ball very well over the off-side through backward point off the quicks and against the spinners he uses his feet and hits very well through the leg side.

"He's a good talent."

Rana didn't earn an IPL debut in 2015 though Ponting said that was more due to a surplus of batting talent at the franchise than anything to do with the youngster's readiness, and instead he first appeared in the tournament at the back-end of the 2016 edition, featuring in Mumbai's final four matches.

"He was probably a little unlucky not to play a little bit earlier," Ponting explained.

"But we had guys like (Rohit) Sharma, (Ambati) Rayudu, (Jos) Buttler, (Kieron) Pollard and these guys, and (Parthiv) Patel and Lendl Simmons opening so it was hard to fit him in to the line-up when most of those guys were quite consistent.

"So he was unlucky.

"But we unleashed him in the back end of last season and he played a couple of sensational knocks."

After posting an unflattering nine on debut, Rana benefited from some words of advice from Ponting in his second and third trips to the middle, hitting three sixes in a quick-fire 28 before really impressing with a devastating 70 from just 36 balls in the Indians' final match of the season.

"After his first game, I could tell he was a bit nervous and was playing as if he was worried about his spot in the side," Ponting said.

"I grabbed a hold of him ahead of the second game said 'You're better than that. As soon as the spinners come on, if there's anything you can hit, just whack it into the top of the stand'.

"And he listened, he did it and I think that has carried over into this season.

"He's just confident now and he's scoring so quickly as well ... he's on top of his game right now.

"I remember saying to him at the start of last season: 'You've passed all these guys (fellow young batsmen in the squad). You're a lot better player than these guys and if an opportunity comes in the side, you're the one that's going to come in'.

"And he went into the side and nailed the opportunities he had.

"So it's a really good story and it's great to see him doing what he's doing now.

"There could be bigger things in store for him."

Quizzed on what those "bigger things" might include, Ponting suggested limited-overs international cricket was the likely next stepping stone for Rana.

India reached the semi-finals of last year's ICC World T20 tournament on home soil but their passionate fans viewed that as a failure, and with the likes of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni still appearing in the middle-order, the young Mumbai batsman could well feature in a changing of the guard alongside Delhi blaster Rishabh Pant, a 19-year-old who made his T20I debut in February.

As for Test cricket, the Australian legend suggested Rana – who is Mumbai's leading run-scorer this IPL campaign with 312 at 34.66 – would need to iron out some technical issues before making an impact in the five-day game.

"He's got a very good domestic record in one-day and four-day cricket," Ponting said.

"It probably might take him a little bit longer to develop his Test cricket – he's got a few things to work on there, particularly against fast bowling ... all young Indians have the same deficiencies but I can see him continuing to improve.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see him in an Indian T20 squad, because that's generally what they like to do, like with Hardik Pandya; he had a few outstanding performances in the IPL (and was picked).

"They like to pick them young and they like to get them in there and you can't argue with what he's doing at the moment.

"So I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a T20 team or even a one-day team as well."