Haris Rauf responded frankly to a reporter’s statement in PC, “Aapne kaha Zimbabwe halki team hai…”

Pakistan has been in danger of leaving the T20 World Cup early after suffering two straight losses in its games against India and Zimbabwe. While the Babar Azam-led team lost against India by a narrow margin of four wickets, their encounter against Zimbabwe came down to the last ball, with the team losing by a sad one run. Pakistan lost their middle order and fell short in the chase after holding the Zimbabwean team to 130/8.

After the loss, Pakistan’s cricket team received harsh criticism from both fans and former players. During the pre-match press conference before the team’s match against the Netherlands, a reporter questioned bowler Haris Rauf on how seriously Pakistan took Zimbabwe.

“Haris, Zimbabwe has a strong team, and the Netherlands has one too. Ranking me, Kadr se. Unko relax liya aur 130 bhi nahi ho saka, Zaahir, hai. What is the Netherlands’s tarah like? cricket khelenge ruthless? (Zimbabwe and Netherlands aren’t very strong teams in terms of rankings. Pakistan let off a little bit, and we were unable to reach 130. The reporter questioned, “How will you approach the game versus the Netherlands?”

But Haris Rauf responded to the same in a rather plain way. The fast bowler stated that no side is weak in ICC competitions and that players give it their all no matter who they are playing.

“Zimbabwe has a great squad, dekhein aapne baat ki. Halka nahi hota, koi bhi tournament khelne aaye. In light of the next international match, it is important to keep the World Cup in mind. Ya ye nahi keh sakte ki vo achhi team hai ya nahi hai, ham kisi ko halka nahi keh sakte. (As you pointed out, Zimbabwe’s squad isn’t very powerful. That is not how it is. Everyone has come to this international game to win the World Cup. We cannot dismiss anybody, and we cannot declare that one squad is superior to another,” Haris said.

“Ham apna 100 percent dene ki koshish karte hain. Netherlands ya Zimbabwe se match ho. Results, however, do not favour me at all. Jeeti Zimbabwe, achha khele. Ham apna best denge, agle match jiske saath bhi hain. (We must give our all, whether it’s the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, or anybody else. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe outplayed us and the outcome wasn’t in our favor. But we’ll give it our all in the games to come),” the Pakistani fast bowler said.