"Ghosts of Melbourne" - Former RCB pacer reacts to Haris Rauf's poor bowling effort in IND vs PAK Asia Cup 2025 final

Former pacer Varun Aaron opined that India's batters were able to attack Haris Rauf in the Asia Cup 2025 final because of his predictable bowling methods. Referring to Virat Kohli's iconic assault on the Pakistan fast bowler in the 2022 T20 World Cup clash in Melbourne, the former India fast bowler explained that batters find it easy to go after Rauf because he has a tendency of telegraphing plans.

India beat Pakistan by five wickets in a thrilling Asia Cup 2025 final in Dubai on Sunday, September 28. Sent into bat, Pakistan were bowled out for 146 in 19.1 overs. In the chase, though, India suffered early jitters and were reduced to 20-3. Rauf, however, had a poor game and conceded 50 in 3.4 overs, which made a huge difference in the end result.

During a discussion on ESPN Cricinfo, Aaron opined that India's batters exploited the lack of versatility in Rauf's bowling to great advantage. He elaborated:

"It's basically the ghosts of Melbourne returning to haunt him because Haris Rauf has this tendency of telegraphing plans. If we go back to Melbourne, where Virat Kohli hit him for those few sixes, it was very sure from the outside that he is only going to bowl back of length.

"Today, the moment [Mike] Hesson made those signs of bowling wide, he went over the wicket to the lefties and just kept bowling wide. Even if you are bowling wide, especially to Shivam Dube, you can mix it up with a wide slower bouncer," the 35-year-old went on to add.

Rauf conceded 17 runs in the 15th over of India's chase and then went for 13 runs in the 18th over. India needed 10 runs to win in the last over bowled by Rauf and got home with two balls to spare.

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Virat Kohli launched a spectacular assault on Haris Rauf in 2022 T20 World Cup match

Speaking of the India vs Pakistan 2022 T20 World Cup clash in Melbourne, Rauf was again at the receiving end of some terrific hitting, on that occasions from Kohli. Chasing 160, India needed 31 off the last two overs. Rauf bowled the 19th over and Kohli launched the last two balls for brilliant sixes to keep the Men in Blue alive in the contest.

India needed 16 off the last over and sneaked home as Kohli ended up unbeaten on 82 off 53 balls. While Rauf ended with decent figures of 2-36, the two sixes he conceded at the end had a telling impact on the final result.