Pakistan's interim white-ball head coach Jason Gillespie believes Haris Rauf's fiery pace exposed flaws hidden within the Australian team during their historic ODI away series triumph.
After Pat Cummins bailed out Australia in the series opener with his composed 32*, the hosts were left flabbergasted in the second and the third ODIs.
It was Haris Rauf's scorching pace that shifted the dynamics of the series in Pakistan's favour. Australia's seasoned and most talented stars struggled to find a way to effectively negate Rauf's red-hot pace.
In Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Glen Maxwell fell thrice to Rauf's blistering speed. Even the established Test stars Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were beaten by the sheer speed of the 31-year-old.
Even the young trio, featuring Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi complimented Rauf well as they bowled in tandem in patches.
Rauf made inroads in Australia's batting line-up and ended the series as the leading wicket-taker. With 10 scalps at a bowling average of 12.00, Rauf was adjudged Player of the Series, a token which served as a reminder of the impact he had across three ODIs.
"What we saw in this series is our bowling exposed some flaws in the Australian batting. I'm sure the Australians will look to right some wrongs and improve some things. That's what good players and good teams do.
You learn, adjust, and adapt and be ready for the next challenge," Gillespie said, as quoted from The Sydney Morning Herald.
In the series decider, Australia rested its mainstay pacers Josh Hazlewood, skipper Pat Cummins and left-armer Mitchell Starc. Established batting duo Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were also rested in light of the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy against India later this month.
Gillespie claimed that the visitors knew that they stood in contention to win the third ODI because they were aware that Australia would likely drop its top players.
"We knew that there was probably going to be some change, knowing what Australia have coming up. You always thought at the back of your mind were they going to send the big quicks over to Perth to play one 50-over game," Gillespie noted.
"We anticipated that, and that's the nature of modern cricket, and it's up to selectors and coaches to manage their players as best they can. Australia chose to do that. It was pretty obvious that this three-match one-day series wasn't the highest of priorities for Australia," he added.
Gillespie didn't blame the Australian management for dropping star players to preserve their fitness for the BGT series and not putting the three ODIs on focus.
"It's critical to look after and manage your players as effectively as you possibly can because you want them fit and firing for as much international cricket as possible, and sometimes you have to manage some players," he said.
"It's unrealistic to have players playing every single international that's scheduled, I just don't think that's sustainable, and you burn players out very quickly," he remarked. In the first ODI, Pakistan had a sniff of victory despite bundling out on 203.
The four speedsters left Australia reeling at 155/7, raising hopes of an unprecedented victory for the Men in Green.
However, Cummins injected composure to take the game away from Pakistan with a narrow two-wicket victory. The interim head coach felt Pakistan should have won the game as well.
"All we can do as Pakistan is play against the opposition that's presented, and we did that really well. It was pleasing not just to beat Australia but to beat them pretty convincingly. The reality is we should have won the first game as well," he noted.
