Rumman Raees: “All of us were bowling in the nets to Sharjeel and he was smashing us all over the place”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Rumman Raees has recalled a time where he and a few other bowlers were smashed everywhere by aggressive Pakistan opener Sharjeel Khan.
At one point, Sharjeel was Pakistan’s go-to opening batsman as he played an attacking brand of cricket that gave the men in green fast starts and proved to be popular with fans everywhere.
Raees admitted that it was tough to bowl to the 34-year-old from Hyderabad as he would take them to the cleaners with his powerful arsenal of shots.
“All of us were bowling in the nets to Sharjeel and he was smashing us all over the place,” he said on Daniyal Sheikh’s podcast as quoted by Cricwick.
Sharjeel, who last played international cricket in August 2021, represented the Karachi Kings in the 2023 Pakistan Super League and scored 42 runs in four matches at an average of 10.50 and a strike-rate of 110.52.
The Pakistan team have been on a roll as of late as they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in a Test series and Afghanistan 3-0 in an ODI series.
Currently, they are playing in the Asia Cup, where they started with a dominant 238-run win over Nepal.
They then had to share one point apiece with India after their match was rained off following the men in blue being bowled out for 266.
Despite this, Pakistan still made it through to the Super Four stage and maintained their superb form as they crushed Bangladesh by seven wickets in Lahore.
The men in green will now face India again on September 10 in Colombo.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup:Â Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr.
Travelling reserve: Tayyab Tahir