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One of the generation’s most terrorised bowlers conceded 24 runs in his first over against Australia.
Haris Rauf walks back, holding his cap in absolute disarray and shock.
In isolation, these figures are a chink in armour for a world-class bowler. Except it wasn’t an isolated incident.
Rauf’s downfall has coincided with Pakistan’s downfall in this year’s ODI World Cup. After the 24-run-over, the cameras panned out towards Rauf frequently, as his bowling was increasingly under the scanner.
Until a few days ago, he was supposed to be Pakistan’s differentiator, but at that moment, the ball seemed to be travelling much quicker than it’s being delivered. Pakistan’s skipper, Babar Azam, was clueless, and so were the rest of the pack.
Till the commencement of the Asia Cup, Rauf was up there as one of the best pacers in ODI cricket, and his consistent wicket-taking ability was viewed as a true hallmark of a great pacer.
In that time frame, Rauf picked up 44 wickets, having played three and 11 matches lesser than Shardul Thakur (46) and Alzarri Joseph (56), who topped the charts. To go with that, Rauf had picked up three four-wicket hauls, a feat only matched by a handful of bowlers.
It didn’t stop there at the 2023 Asia Cup, either. Amongst the pacers in the competition, Rauf clearly had the third-best average (13.3), with nine wickets, two wickets fewer than Matheesha Pathirana, who topped the charts (11 wickets).
His raw pace was revered in world cricket and also brought back the archaic saying, “Pace is pace, yaar.”
Rauf’s bowling was an embodiment of a 3 AM friend. Need wickets in the powerplay, a middle-over enforcer, or someone to cause chaos at the death? The 29-year-old was like three packages rolled into one, keeping Pakistan’s dil beating without much strain.
There wasn’t any madness behind his bowling; it was simplicity at its peak and a lot of pace, alongside his ability to hit the back of a length on a regular basis. When pitched on a good length (6-8 m), the Pakistani pacer has picked up 30 of his 63 wickets (47.6%). The wickets are also a direct result of how tough it has been for the batters to hit him on the length,
Whenever he has hit that length, the economy rate has been the lowest - 4.6 - which has often forced the batters to take undue risk, drawing a false shot percentage of 23.1%. Field restrictions didn’t matter to him either, with consistent good showings in the powerplay as well, where he relied upon the back of a length spot to surprise the batters.
What has gone terribly wrong then for Rauf?
Rauf’s troubles at this year's World Cup aren’t too compound.
If you think about it, Rauf struggles with the same thing that the Pakistan team struggle with, too: lack of control.
In an ideal world, Rauf’s entry points with the ball have either coincided with some miserly bowling from Naseem Shah or Shaheen Afridi’s new ball spark. Pakistan pacers in Rauf’s purple patch averaged 29.5 in the powerplay, only behind Bangladesh, New Zealand and England in world cricket.
Shaheen struck 18 times in the first ten overs, which made life comparatively easier for the other bowlers in the pack. From the other end, there was Naseem, who was consistently beating the batters, keeping the run-scoring under check, with an economy rate of 4.3 in the powerplay.
Rauf benefitted a great deal from this.
But none of that has happened at this year’s World Cup
Pakistani bowlers in the powerplay have averaged 65.5. If you were wondering, that’s the worst any bowling attack has been in this year’s competition during the first ten-over phase. Shaheen, who takes pride in picking up the early pole, too, has looked far from convincing.
For bowlers with a minimum of ten powerplay overs, Shaheen averages (69), the third-worst in the competition, only behind Pat Cummins and Mustafizur Rahman (72).
Even when it comes to curtailing the run-scoring, Shaheen has looked a shadow figure of himself, with an economy of 5.8 in the tournament. In plain vanilla terms, the left-arm pacer has conceded 138 runs, the second-most for any bowler in that phase.
Hasan Ali, who has replaced Naseem, isn’t providing the control either, giving away runs at 5.6 an over and has only picked up three wickets.
How has that impacted Rauf?
Rauf has been introduced into the attack seven times in the powerplay and has been nothing short of toothless. His economy rate (10.7) is by a far margin the worst number for a bowler at this year’s World Cup in the first ten overs.
Even if you argue that he isn’t a bowler to curtail the run-scoring, he hasn’t picked up a SINGLE wicket during that phase, drawing blanks on every occasion. And there’s a certain pattern attached to Rauf’s failure.
The 29-year-old has majorly bowled just one over in the tournament and, on some occasions, two. In the Netherlands game, he was brought into the attack in the ninth over; it was the tenth over in the Sri Lanka encounter.
Essentially, there has been a pattern. It isn’t that the pacer has been brought onto bowl towards the fag end of the powerplay but something much more detrimental to his bowling numbers.
These have been Rauf’s entry points in the World Cup.
34/1 against the Netherlands.
53/1 against Sri Lanka.
63/1 against India.
43/0 against Australia.
38/0 against Afghanistan.
57/1 against South Africa.
Here’s how Rauf has responded in his first over of those clashes: 6 runs against the Netherlands (1 four), 5 against Sri Lanka (1 four), 14 against India (2 sixes), 24 against Australia (4 fours, 1 six), 17 runs against Afghanistan (4 fours), nine runs against South Africa (1 six).
Rauf’s response has been nothing short of terrible. Out of all bowlers in this World Cup, the Pakistan pacer’s first over has had the worst impact on the team, with an economy rate of 12.5, with a boundary every 2.6 deliveries.
The profound effect of his first-over struggle has haunted the fortunes of the pacer in the tournament. After entering the event as one of the most fearsome bowlers, teams have slept easy knowing they have Rauf to attack.
It has directly or indirectly had a big influence on the outcome of the clash. In the first clash, Pakistan’s win percentage went down from 70 to 67. But the biggest differences were in the clashes against Australia and Afghanistan - where Rauf conceded 24 and 17 runs in his first over, respectively.
In the Australia clash, Pakistan’s hopes were crushed, with the win percentage going down by 13%, and in the next clash, it went down by 15%, showing how his first overs often have ended up doing more harm than good for the Men in Green.
One of Rauf’s biggest strengths was his ability to generate false shots from a length (6-8 m) and back of a length (8-10m). But it has been a starkly different story this time, with the length deliveries costing Rauf an economy of 9.3.
It has, in turn, even affected Rauf’s strong suit - bowling in the middle-overs, where he has terribly underdelivered.
Amongst all pacers in the middle-overs (min 20 overs), Rauf is the second-worst, only behind Gerald Coetzee - in terms of economy rate.
But there has been a big difference between Coetzee and Rauf.
In the middle-over phase, Coetzee has gone severely under the radar, with ten wickets, the best pacer in terms of wicket-taking ability in the tournament. Even at a phase where Rauf usually has a monopoly, his numbers (three wickets @75 and ER of 6.6) are nothing short of a mega disappointment.
Not just that, the Pakistani pacer also has drawn a false-shot percentage of only 16.1, the fourth-lowest for any pacer in the tournament.
"It would have been good for Haris’s confidence if the captain would have given the ball after the powerplay, when there are four fielders in the deep. Then he can bowl his bouncers. If he is bowling short of length outside the off stump, he will have a sweeper cover,” Misbah had a suggestion for Babar regarding Rauf’s powerplay form on ‘The Pavillion Show’ in A Sports.
Clearly, Pakistan are clutching their straws, and with every loss, the scrutiny has been immense. Pakistan’s pace unit is bleeding and suffering, and Rauf, in Naseem’s absence, is bearing a big brunt of that damage.
