Wasim Akram slams Haris Rauf – ‘He’s a run machine… but as a bowler’

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram criticized Haris Rauf after his mundane performance in the Asia Cup final against India. Pakistan suffered a heart-breaking loss of five wickets at Dubai on Sunday as they could not come up with a collective performance.

Rauf, who has all the experience under his belt, conceded 50 runs in 3.4 overs he bowled and also went wicketless in the all-important final. Akram questioned Rauf for not fixing his run-up and urged the bowler to play first-class cricket to improve his bowling.

Wasim Akram said on SonyLiv, “Haris Rauf is unfortunately a run machine… as a bowler. And especially against India. I mean, I’m not criticising him. The whole country’s criticising him. And he doesn’t play red ball cricket. He’s not going to improve, he’s not going to play well if he doesn’t do that. So you don’t want a player in your team who refuses to play red ball cricket. PCB has to say to Haris Rauf: ‘If you are not playing red ball cricket, thank you very much!’

“The control is not there because he doesn’t play red-ball cricket. PCB has to sit down and think, if you’re not playing red-ball cricket, thank you very much,” Akram emphasized that his concerning abilities are due to the lack of red-ball experience.

The former legendary pacer added that Rauf needs to improve his length and run-up to reap rewards consistently.

“You want to improve your length, and his run-up-he’s not the smoothest. I was talking to Waqar (Younis), and I asked, how come he hasn’t fixed the run-up in the last four or five years since he’s been playing? He said he doesn’t play red-ball cricket,” Akram added.

Pakistan were bowled out for 146 despite a promising start by their openers and their bowlers could not defend the total even when India were tottering at 20-3 after four overs.