Why was Haris Rauf dropped from Pakistan squad for T20 World Cup 2026? Revealed

Haris Rauf has played a key role in some of the famous wins of Pakistan in various ICC events over the years.

Pakistan have announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026, and a surprise exclusion was that of speedster Haris Rauf. Rauf, who has been a vital part of the Pakistan white-ball teams in the last 2-3 years, was not picked for the upcoming ICC event.

Babar Azam’s return was one of the talking points of the Pakistan squad, which will see Salman Ali Agha continuing as the skipper of the T20I side. Pakistan participated in the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, although they were defeated by teams like India and the USA in the group stage and did not make it to the Super-8 stage either.

Apart from Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, and Usman Khan will lead the batting charge for Pakistan. Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, and Faheem Ashraf are the all-rounders, while Usman Tariq and Abrar Ahmed will be the specialist spinners.

Here is why Haris Rauf was excluded from Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad

In 2020, Haris Rauf played his first game for Pakistan against Bangladesh in Lahore. Since then, Pakistan has participated in three T20 World Cups, one ODI World Cup, and one Champions Trophy among ICC competitions, and Rauf has consistently performed well in each event.

For the Men in Green, the 32-year-old Pakistani speedster has some encouraging stats. He has taken 133 T20I wickets in 94 outings and 97 ODI wickets in 54 games. In the game’s shortest format, he has taken the most wickets for Pakistan.

However, PCB Director of High Performance and member of the men’s national selection committee, Aqib Javed, was asked about Haris Rauf’s exclusion from the Pakistan T20 World Cup side and whether his performances in the recent Big Bash League (BBL) affected their decision.

Javed revealed that since Pakistan will play all of its matches in Sri Lanka, where pitches are very spin-friendly, they decided to pack the Pakistan squad with spinners instead of pacers.

“We are playing our matches in Sri Lanka, and we finalized the squad based on the conditions there,” Javed stated, as per Geo News.  

Pakistan have been placed in Group A alongside India, the USA, the Netherlands, and Namibia. They’ll open their T20 World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on February 7 in Colombo. They will then face the United States on February 10, arch-rival India on February 15, and Namibia on February 18 in their last group stage match.

The Super Eight round is set to begin on February 21 in Colombo and end on March 1 in Kolkata.

Pakistan Squad for T20 World Cup 2026

Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk) and Usman Tariq.

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