Viral illness delays Harshit Rana's return and leaves him short of India's New Zealand tour

A viral illness has halted Harshit Rana's recovery from a quadriceps strain, leaving the India seamer unlikely to be available for the tour of New Zealand that begins this month

India fast bowler Harshit Rana has been held up again on his way back from injury, with a fever, a cold and a sore throat interrupting the rehabilitation programme he has been following at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

Rana had been due to resume bowling this week, the first real step of a graduated return from the low-grade quadriceps strain he sustained on September 7. The illness has paused that plan, and he is now not expected to be in contention for India's tour of New Zealand, which starts on October 22.

The delay to Rana's return, and a separate setback for Hardik Pandya, were first reported on Sunday by Abhishek Tripathi of Dainik Jagran and carried by several Indian outlets.

A strain that has not healed to schedule

Rana felt pain in his left quadriceps during a match simulation on September 7. An MRI scan confirmed a low-grade strain of the rectus femoris, and the medical staff set out three weeks of controlled loading before any return to bowling.

That timeline would have brought him to a ball in hand in the first week of October, with his workload then stepped up according to how he tolerated each session rather than to a fixed date.

The programme never reached that point. The viral illness arrived first, and the return-to-play plan has been held where it stands rather than compressed to meet the New Zealand departure date.

Out of the West Indies T20Is

Rana is not in India's squad for the five-match T20I series against West Indies, which opens at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday. The seam bowling there falls to Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav, with Shreyas Iyer captaining and Tilak Varma as his deputy.

He has not played since the strain was diagnosed last month, and the latest interruption now pushes his competitive return into domestic cricket rather than international.

Pandya's calf under a longer treatment plan

Pandya's problem is of a different order. He reported right calf pain during a match simulation on September 19, and an MRI showed very mild intramedullary oedema consistent with medial tibial stress syndrome — a bone-stress condition rather than a muscle tear.

He has been prescribed bisphosphonate therapy and vitamin D supplementation across a six to eight week window, with low-load exercise building towards running and then cricket training.

Pandya was withdrawn earlier this week from India A's one-day squad for the series against Australia A, where Suryansh Shedge took his place. No return date has been put on him either.

What India are heading into

The tour of New Zealand runs from October 22 to December 1 and takes in five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests.

It opens with back-to-back T20Is at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on October 22 and 24, before Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton. The Test series closes back at Hagley Oval from November 27.

New Zealand will be led in the T20Is by Mitchell Santner, with Rachin Ravindra ruled out of that leg after dislocating his right shoulder in a promotional shoot. He is expected back for the ODIs from November 4.

Two absences with a World Cup year ahead

Both men are part of India's wider white-ball group when fit, and the 2027 ODI World Cup falls next year.

Neither injury has been described as serious in itself. In both cases it is the recovery that has run longer than first expected, with illness in one and a bone-stress diagnosis in the other adding weeks that were not in the original plan.

Rana's next cricket, on current indications, will be a domestic assignment: the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with Delhi next month.

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