Senior India cricketer and now a recognised commentator Dinesh Karthik has named the two Pakistani players who have been the biggest flops in the ongoing World Cup 2023 tournament.
Heading into their last league-stage match, against England in Kolkata, Pakistan have an unenviable, almost impossible requirement of winning by 287 runs to surpass New Zealand’s NRR and qualify for the semi-finals.
If England win the toss and elect to bat first, then Pakistan will be effectively eliminated as they would then have to chase the target inside 6 overs, which is realistically not possible.
Haris Rauf was a massive miss for them: Dinesh Karthik
Picking the two most underperformers for Pakistan in the World Cup 2023, Dinesh Karthik named fast bowler Haris Rauf and leg-spinner Shadab Khan.
Rauf has been unable to step up in the absence of Naseem Shah and hasn’t given much support to Shaheen Afridi. Rauf has taken 13 wickets and has leaked runs at an economy rate of 6.79. Shadab has had a horrendous tournament, which saw him getting dropped for Usama Mir. Shadab has picked only 2 wickets in 4 innings and has conceded at 6.42 runs per over.
Speaking with Cricbuzz on Pakistan’s struggles in the World Cup, Dinesh Karthik said: “Haris Rauf was a massive miss for them, he was somebody who was touted to be the most important bowler who could bowl through the middle overs, pick up wickets and at the death, but he leaked a lot of runs in his first and second spell and then it was Shadab Khan, he was the biggest miss for them in this tournament, just couldn’t pick up wickets, was a pale shadow of his past and that really showed why Pakistan struggled.”
Rauf’s bowling figures of 10-0-85-1 against New Zealand is now the second-worst bowling figures by a Pakistani bowler in World Cup. Shadab was dropped for Usama Mir, who went for even more expensive economy than Shadab and eventually, both got dropped from Pakistan’s previous game against New Zealand. One of them is likely to return against England as the Kolkata pitch offers plenty of turn.