India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has reacted to Haris Rauf’s controversial gesture towards Indian fans on the boundary. Rauf was seen making gestures of crashing planes near the boundary rope during the Super 4 fixture of the Asia Cup 2025 against India.
Through his actions, Pakistan fast bowler was reiterating his nation’s uncorroborated claim of downing six Indian jets during the border escalations between the two countries earlier this year in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
However, Rauf’s actions haven’t gone down well as he’s being widely criticised by fans and pundits all across the cricketing fraternity. India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has also commented on Rauf’s controversial gestures and praised Indian players for not getting carried away and answering with their performance on the field.
“Yeah, let me first say, the amount of pressure that’s been heaped on the players because of the situation. It’s very difficult to control your behavior. I did see some of the things Haris did and that’s not our concern. Like I said earlier, we’re really proud of how the guys have carried themselves, they’ve fought fire with their bats in the field. Other teams, I’m sure they have issues with some of the things we’ve done. But from our side, we’re delighted with how our guys have carried themselves in the tournament,” said Ten Doeschate in the pre-match press conference.
Furthermore, Ten Doeschate also shared his views on Sahibzada Farhan’s gun celebration after completing his half-century and once again credited his men for not losing their mind.
“Given the situation, you can see why guys are behaving (like that) and what they are trying to portray. But, like I said, our boys were focused on how we wanted to behave. But, I think we stuck really well to cricket. It would have been easy to lose our minds, given the celebratory gestures and some of the words during the game from the Pakistan bowling unit. But, I thought the guys stuck really well to the task and winning the game. Like I said, we were not at our very best, there's a lot of things to work on. But, still managing to win comfortably is good for us,” he added.
India managed to register a comfortable six-wicket win over Pakistan in the Super 4 fixture as they chased down 172 in 18.5 overs. Abhishek Sharma (74 off 39) and Shubman Gill (47 off 28) emerged as the top performers for the Men in Blue as they added a massive 105 runs for the first wicket from 59 balls to set up the game for their team.
Meanwhile, after the second commanding victory over arch rivals in the tournament, India will next take on Bangladesh on Wednesday, September 24 in Dubai. Another commanding victory will seal India’s place in the final, scheduled to be played on September 28.
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