Nitish Rana, the captain of the Uttar Pradesh state side, is a forceful left-handed batter who performs well against spinners. Rana has developed into a true all-rounder, having begun his career as a top-order batsman and occasional off-spinner.
He has recently expanded his repertoire of horizontal bat strokes and concentrated on short-pitched deliveries. With an outstanding strike rate of 136, Rana has amassed 4520 runs in 184 Twenty20 matches.
At the IPL 2025 super auction, Nitish Rana’s services were acquired by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for INR 4.2 crores. Three teams in all shown interest in signing Rana. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and RR fought it out in the end to win the offer.
Rana, who is well-known for his flexibility, is a useful part-time off-spinner and a reliable middle-order batsman. In the middle order, he will team with Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag.
With the Mumbai Indians, Nitish started his Indian Premier League (IPL) career in 2015. But he wasn’t given frequent opportunity with the team until 2017. Rana scored 333 runs in 13 games throughout the season and was instrumental in MI’s championship run.
During the 2018 season, Rana joined the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). When he removed AB de Villers and Virat Kohli on consecutive deliveries during his debut season with the team, it was one of the most impressive moments of his career.
In 2023, Rana became the leadership of KKR in place of Shreyas Iyer, and he led the team to 413 runs in the competition. During his IPL career, Rana has amassed 2636 runs with a strike rate of 135 runs.
Rana began working with MI in 2015 for INR 10 lakhs. In 2018, he transferred to KKR for INR 3.4 crores, then he was hired for INR 8 crores in 2022.
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