Team India breaks silence on Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan's provocative gestures: ‘Would have been easy to lose our…’

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate weighs in on the antics of Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan during the Asia Cup Super 4s match in Dubai.

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate heaped praise on his team for their behaviour against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 Super 4s match on Sunday, despite being regularly provoked by the opposition camp, especially pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. The game at the Dubai International Stadium saw Haris and opening batter Sahibzada Farhan making some objectionable gestures, which have not gone down well with the Indian fans.

Haris Rauf was involved in a fiery exchange with Abhishek Sharma. (AFP)

Sahibzada Farhan first brought out the gun celebration after bringing up his fifty. He held his bat like a gun, firing fictional shots in the air. This was clearly insensitive on the part of the Pakistan opener, considering 26 lives were lost in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, earlier this year.

Haris Rauf then signalled towards the crowd as he made gestures of 6-0. Earlier this year, Pakistan had claimed that they brought down 6 Indian fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, where India targeted terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The pacer also passed signals of fighter jets being brought down. Not just this, Shaheen and Haris were also involved in a lot of verbals with Indian openers Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill; however, it was to no avail as India cruised home with six wickets in hand in the chase of 172.

"Let me just say, the amount of pressure that's been heaped on the players because of the situation, it's very difficult to control their behaviour. I did see some of the things Haris did, and, you know, that's not our concern. Like I said earlier, we're really proud of how the guys carried themselves, you know, they were on fire with their bats on the field. You know, how the teams showed their ambitions," ten Doeschate told reporters on Tuesday.

‘Guys really stuck well’

The key member of the Indian support staff also said that the world knows what the Pakistan pacers were trying to do by regularly chirping. However, he stated that he's really proud of his opening batters, Abhishek and Gill, for giving a proper answer with the bat.

“I'll say, given the situation, you can see why guys are behaving and what they're trying to portray. But we were very focused on how we wanted to play. I think we stuck to the cricket really well. It would have been easy to lose our minds at that point, given the celebration as well,” said ten Doeschate.

"Some of the words during the game from the Pakistan bowling unit, but I thought the guys stuck really well to the task of getting the job done and winning the game," he added.

In the match against Pakistan, Gill and Abhishek put on 105 runs for the opening wicket, setting the stage for India's victory. Gill was dismissed for 47 while Abhishek scored 74 runs.

In the end, India chased the target down with seven balls to spare. Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma remained unbeaten for the side on 13 and 30, respectively.

India will now take on Bangladesh in their next Super 4s match on Wednesday, September 24, at the Dubai International Stadium.

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