'Pakistan should give Ben Dunk honorary citizenship' - Ramiz Raja

Former Pakistan batsman Ramiz Raja believes that Pakistan should award honorary citizenship to Lahore Qalandars’ batsman Ben Dunk in order to benefit from his power-hitting in international cricket. The Australian has taken the ongoing season of Pakistan Super League by storm. The hard-hitting batsman has been taking the bowlers to the cleaners and is the primary reason behind Lahore Qalandars’ turnaround in the ongoing season.

After losing their first three games of the season, the Lahore-based franchise has won three of its last four games. In those four games, Dunk has scored 247 runs at an average of 123.50 and a strike rate of 226.61. The stunning run has seen him score a pair of the 90s that have both featured at least 10 sixes. And as Dunk continues to impress with his hard-hitting skills, Ramiz Raja has called for Pakistan to confer honorary citizenship on him to avail his services in international cricket.

“I think we should give him [Ben Dunk] honorary citizenship as well,” Raja said on his YouTube channel. “We should make him play for Pakistan because my wish is to see a Pakistani batsmen do similar kind of power-hitting. We haven’t seen any Pakistani batsman do this kind of hitting except for Shadab Khan this season.”

“Ben Dunk is a completely different class of strike force and he played a marvellous knock,” he added.

Ben Dunk slammed a match-winning 99* against Karachi Kings

Ramiz Raja’s comments came after Ben Dunk’s match-winning knock of 99 not out against Karachi Kings. Defending 188, Kings were well in control of the game at the halfway mark as they had Qalandars reeling at 63 for 2 after ten overs. However, Dunk turned on the heat and took his side home with eight balls to spare. On his YouTube channel, Raja also highlighted a tactical mistake made by Karachi Kings which cost them the game against Qalandars.

“Karachi played two-left arm spinners against Ben Dunk, knowing that Dunk had scored heavily against Mohammad Nawaz in the game against Quetta. Karachi should have learned from Quetta’s experience of bowling against Dunk and should have instead given Usama Mir a go,” he said.

“There is a possibility that Usama Mir could have gone for runs as well, but he has big height and his googly might have worked against Dunk. I believe that was a big tactical mistake from Karachi.”

“Substitute fielder Rizwan dropped Ben Dunk’s catch when Lahore still required 104, which proved to be the turning point of the match. Although Rizwan is an agile fielder, but it was Ben Dunk’s day and after that, he never looked back and played a brilliant innings,” he added.

Here’s the video: