Salman Butt: “You have to play Tests. You have to play five days, you have to clock 150 kph in morning, afternoon, and evening sessions. This isn’t like bowling 4 overs in T20Is”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt said he wants to see pace bowler Haris Rauf bowl 150 kph consistently in the morning, afternoon and evening sessions of a Test match.
He noted that this is the best way for the 29-year-old to really make a name for himself and take his career to the next level.
Rauf is a main member of the Pakistan pace attack in white-ball cricket, but made his Test debut against England in December 2022.
But, it remains to be seen if he will be given more opportunities to feature in the longest format, especially since pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi will have fully recovered from his knee injury.
Salman pointed out that Rauf also has to show he can last an entire Test match after he injured his quad in his debut match.
“You have to play Tests. You have to play five days, you have to clock 150 kph in morning, afternoon, and evening sessions. This isn’t like bowling 4 overs in T20Is. You just can’t compare on the basis of T20Is. You should last five days first, right now we are talking about resting after 4 T20Is! So, there’s a lot more to achieve,” he said during a live session on YouTube as quoted by NDTV.
Currently, Rauf is representing the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
In the team’s opening match against the Multan Sultans, which they won by one run, he finished with figures of 1-37 off his four overs.
The Qalandars’ next match will be against the Karachi Kings on February 19.
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 8: Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, David Wiese, Hussain Talat, Haris Rauf, Abdullah Shafique, Liam Dawson, Sikander Raza, Ahmad Daniyal, Dilbar Hussain, Harry Brook, Kamran Ghulam, Mirza Tahir Baig, Shawaiz Irfan, Zaman Khan, Jalat Khan and Jordan Cox, Ahsan Bhatti, Sam Billings, Shane Dadswell and Shai Hope