Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Haris is working hard, has taken wickets, and we hope he’ll improve even more”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
New Pakistan T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi said he hopes to see fellow pace bowler Haris Rauf “improve even more” going forward.
Rauf came under a lot of criticism during the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup for leaking too many runs when bowling.
The 30-year-old conceded 533 runs in nine matches – the most by a bowler in a single edition of the World Cup.
Despite this, he did take 16 wickets at an average of 33.31.
While Afridi does not doubt Rauf’s wicket-taking abilities, he conceded that the Rawalpindi native still has room for improvement.
“Haris is working hard, has taken wickets, and we hope he’ll improve even more,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the World Cup, Afridi claimed 18 wickets in nine games at an average of 26.72.
Pakistan won their first two matches against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fighting back to take down Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not qualify for the semi-finals.
Afridi will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, while Rauf was supposed to be in the squad but pulled out at the last minute due to workload concerns.
The first Test between Pakistan and Australia will start on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi