Pakistan speedster Haris Rauf said that he was happy when Team India head coach Ravi Shastri praised him for his progress and success when he met him recently at the MCG during the T20 World Cup 2022.
Rauf was once a net bowler at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the Indian team during their 2018-19 tour of Australia. At that time, Rauf bowled at the nets against the likes of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.
Rauf further revealed that now whenever he meets Shastri, the former Indian coach reminds him of "those days" and says he feels happy for him to see him being a household name in the cricket world now.
Haris Rauf told Crickwick: “Aksar unse (Ravi Shastri) se mulakat hoti hai, wo kehte hai ‘yaar ek net bowler jaise tum hamare paas aye they…aur jis tarah tum world me bowling kar rahey ho tumhara ek naam hai. Jab hum tumko dekhte hai to hume kafi khushi milti hai.
To unhe sara pata hai jaise Virat bhai bhi kafi appreciate karte hai ki ek time tum net bowler bhi they. (Whenever I meet Shastri, he always reminds me how I was a net bowler once and now you have so much fame. So, he knows where I came from. Even Kohli appreciates where I have reached.)”
The Pakistani pacer also opened up about those two sixes that Virat Kohli hit against him in a T20 World Cup 2022 match at the MCG.
He said: “The way he played in the World Cup, that is his class, we all know the types of shots he plays. And the way he hit those sixes; I don’t think any other player can hit shots like those off my bowling.”
Rauf signed off by saying, “If Dinesh Karthik or Hardik Pandya would’ve hit those sixes, I would’ve been hurting but those came off Kohli’s bat and he is a different class altogether.”
