During Pakistan’s opening game against the United States of America (USA), all eyes were on how the experienced bowling attack of the sub-continent will perform during the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA). The former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, however, has slammed the unprofessionalism of Haris Rauf.
In the opening game at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, the USA side invited the Asia team for batting, who struggled so much in the powerplay, as they lost three crucial wickets and their captain Babar Azam wasn’t getting the momentum.
The USA was flying high with the bat in hand, in the first six overs, as the wicket-keeper batter and captain Monank Patel steadied them in the 160-run chase with a 50-run knock. By the time, they reached the last over, the equation came down that America would need 15 runs for a victory.
“It’s not a surprise that Haris Rauf conceded so many runs because…’ – Salman Butt
The Pakistan captain Babar Azam threw the ball to Haris Rauf, who had 1/23 in his three overs. The momentum was with them after experienced left-arm bowler Mohammad Amir gave away only six runs in the penultimate over.
Rauf’s first ball to Nitish Kumar was a single from the blade of Nitish Kumar, while the second ball was dropped. He held his nerve on the third delivery by not conceding a boundary. But his third ball was a full-toss on the leg stump, which was drilled by Aaron Jones over cow-corner for a six.
A single on the fifth ball meant Nitish Kumar was required to smash a boundary in the last ball of the innings and he did against the low full-toss of Haris Rauf at the mid-off region. In the super-over, Amir was the guilty party, but the blame also should be put on the fielders, who had no clue about giving away the easy singles and doubles.
The former captain of the national side expressed that Haris Rauf doesn’t look at his field while bowling, and always does whatever he wishes to.
“It is not a surprise that he conceded so many runs because he is that kid who doesn’t look at his field at all. Mid-off is inside the circle, and yet he bowls full and gets hit for a boundary on the last ball,” the retired Pakistan batter, Salman Butt said during the ‘Cricket Baithak’ podcast. “You can see the captain also screamed at him. When you have mid-off up, then you don’t bowl full balls. This is a basic of cricket.”
Rauf ended up leaking 37 runs in his four overs, he was the most expensive of the pacers, and also guilty of not following his field against Andreas Gous.
Salman Butt feels that the pacer is quite ‘unprofessional’ and never looked to learn from his past mistakes in the field.
“He (Haris Rauf) has some weird style when he bowls a ball and just sits on his knees with his hand on his head. It is as if he incurred a loss in shares or someone robbed him,” the Lahore-born, Salman Butt reflected in the same podcast.
“I don’t know what he tries to portray but that is so unprofessional. You never learn anything. They lacked common sense and game awareness.”
On the other hand, former South Africa pacer Rusty Theron has accused Rauf of tempering the condition of the ball when he was running his thumbnails.
“@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren’t scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that’s just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumbnail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA,” the 38-year-old seamer revealed on his ‘X’ social media account.
Pakistan will face India in their next game on June 09.