‘Have High Goals..’: Ahead of IND vs PAK Showdown, Haris Rauf Makes ‘Player of the Tournament’ Admission – News18

Ahead of the high-octane clash between India and Pakistan, Haris Rauf has made his intentions clear as the pacer took a four-wicket haul against Bangladesh in the Super 4 stage. Rauf wasn’t done there as revealed his desire to win the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award after helping Pakistan to a 7-wicket win over the Bangla Tigers in Lahore on Wednesday, September 6.

Rauf picked up the Player of the Match award thanks to his four-wicket haul which helped Pakistan remain unbeaten in Asia Cup 2023 and mark the beginning of the Super 4 stage with a clinical win.

Rauf picked up the wickets of Mohammad Naim, Towhid Hridoy, Taskin Ahmed and Mushfiqur Rahim.

Pakistan vs Bangladesh Highlights, Asia Cup 2023

Speaking to the reporters after the match, Rauf who is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 9 scalps to his name made an honest admission that he wants to win the Player of the Tournament award, that’s his ‘goal’.

“It was hot out there, but I’ve played a lot of cricket here. I play PSL for Lahore, the crowd always expects us to perform here. Before any game, we do plan as a bowling unit. We talk about bowling to different plans based on the game phase. Hard length was tough to play here, and the plan was to keep bowling stump to stump,” said Rauf talking about the win.

He added, “Didn’t need to go to the yorker today. I keep working hard and I have high goals for myself, I want to be the Player of the Series in this Asia Cup, let’s see how the tournament proceeds.”

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After a convincing win over Bangladesh in Lahore, Babar Azam’s men will turn their attention to Colombo where they will meet India for the second time in a space of two weeks. The two arch-rivals faced off earlier in the Group A game but it was ultimately washed out due to rain.

Rauf had picked up 3 wickets in that fixture, getting rid of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer cheaply before he chipped in with the priced wicket of Ishan Kishan who scored 82 runs in 81 balls helping India to a competitive total of 266.

Rohit and Co. will be well aware of the threat posed by Rauf, and his partners in crime, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, even though the latter got an injury scare while trying to stop a boundary.