Ramiz Raja wants Haris Rauf, Dilbar Hussain to play England Tests

Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan cricketer, feels that saliva going out of contention would make it tough for bowlers to generate reverse-swing in Test cricket. As a solution, Raja said that the bowlers, who could bowl fast and are accurate in their line and lengths, should be picked in the format.

Hence, Raja wants the likes of Haris Rauf and Dilbar Hussain to play in the three-match overseas Test series against England. Both the speedsters have played quite a bit of cricket together. In the 2019-20 Big Bash League (BBL), they plied their trade for Melbourne Stars, who ended as the runners-up.

Then the duo represented the Lahore Qalandars in the fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently came up with guidelines, banning the usage of saliva, bearing in mind how contagious the COVID-19 virus has been.

These are precisely the kind of bowlers: Ramiz Raja

“During absence of saliva to shine the ball, teams won’t be able to win sessions of a Test match through and reverse swing and sideways movements. Only those bowlers will succeed now, who bowl at an accurate line and length just like in limited-overs cricket,” Raja was quoted as saying in Cricket Pakistan.

“When you look for such bowlers, the first ones that come to mind are Dilbar Hussain and Haris Rauf as they are both accurate and bowl at a good pace. With new regulations in place, these are precisely the kind of bowlers the selection committee will have to look at, ahead of Pakistan’s upcoming tour of England,” he added.

The apex cricket board has asked the match officials to warn the bowlers and then penalise them with five runs to the opposition in case they use saliva. Raja was of the opinion that it will also impact how a spinner performs.

“The same goes for spinners like Yasir Shah, who might not be that effective because they also rely on shining the ball in order to deceive the batsman,” Raja mentioned. In place of Shah, Raja reckons that the likes of Mohammad Nawaz and Farzan Raja could turn out to be more handy owing to their accuracy and pace variations.