The 23-year-old Indian pacer Harshit Rana has made a dramatic T20I debut as he replaced Shivam Dube as a concussion substitute for the Pune T20I against England. While there were certain questions about the like-for-like replacement, England were unhappy with that substitution. 

Shivam Dube got a blow on helmet in the final over

During the fifth ball of the last over of the Indian innings, Jamie Overton’s short delivery hit Shivam Dube’s head. He ultimately ended the innings after a run out on the final ball of the innings with 53 off 34 balls with the help of seven fours and two sixes. He had a massive 87-run partnership with Hardik Pandya (53 off 30 balls) for the sixth wicket, which helped the hosts to score the match-winning first innings total of 181/9 in 20 overs. 

Dube didn’t take the field and later Harshid Rana replaced him as a concussion substitute, which is also known as a like-for-like replacement. By making his T20I debut in this way, Rana created history as he became the first cricketer to make a T20I debut as a concussion substitute. The international cricket debutants as concussion substitutes are as follows (according to the Cricbuzz report)

Test cricket 

Brian Mudzinganyama (Zimbabwe) vs Sri Lanka at Harare (2020)

Khaya Zondo (South Africa) vs Bangladesh at Gqeberha (2022)

Matt Parkinson (England) vs New Zealand at Lord's (2022)

Bahir Shah (Afghanistan) vs Bangladesh at Mirpur (2023)

ODI cricket 

Neil Rock (Ireland) vs West Indies at Kingston (2022)

Kamran Ghulam (Pakistan) vs New Zealand at Karachi (2023)

T20I cricket

Harshit Rana (India) vs England at Pune (2025)

Harshit Rana proved to be a game changer on his dramatic T20I debut

Harshit Rana was the game-changer for India in the Pune T20I, where England were all out for 166 runs. The right-arm pacer, who made his Test debut in the recently concluded Australia tour, ended the Pune T20I with bowling figures of 4-0-33-3. While it was a controversial concussion substitute, where a regular pacer replaced a regular pace-bowling all-rounder, we are now going through the ICC laws about concussion substitutions. 

What does the law claim?

The rule 1.2.7 of ICC’s Men’s T20I playing guidelines deals with concussion substitutes.

According to the rule, “the ICC Match Referee should ordinarily approve a Concussion Replacement Request if the replacement is a like-for-like player whose inclusion will not excessively advantage his/her team for the remainder of the match.”

Sub-sections, 1.2.7.4 and 1.2.7.5, add, “In assessing whether the nominated Concussion Replacement should be considered a like-for-like player, the ICC Match Referee should consider the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match, and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated Concussion Replacement.

“If the ICC Match Referee believes that the inclusion of the nominated Concussion Replacement, when performing their normal role, would excessively advantage their team, the ICC Match Referee may impose such conditions upon the identity and involvement of the Concussion Replacement as he/she sees fit, in line with the overriding objective of facilitating a like-for-like replacement for the concussed player.”