India Coach Breaks Silence On Haris Rauf's Provocative Gestures During Asia Cup 2025 Game

Indian cricket team assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate broke silence on Haris Rauf's provocative gestures during the Asia Cup 2025 Super 4 clash. Although Rauf's gestures led to a massive controversy, Doeschate was quick to point out that what he did was none of their concern. He praised the Indian cricketers on how they conducted themselves on the field and even said that they 'were on fire' with their bats. Rauf made a '6-0' gesture towards the Indian fans while fielding at the boundary line and even mimicked planes getting shot down. It was a direct reference to Pakistan's unverified claims that it downed six Indian fighter jets during the military conflict, following Operation Sindoor. 

"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 their behaviour. 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 our guys carried themselves. They fought fire with their bats on the field. I'm sure other teams 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 this tournament," Ten Doeschate said at the pre-match press conference ahead of India's Super 4 clash against Bangladesh.

Doeschate also opened up about the war of words with Pakistan pacers and praised Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill for responding with their bats. Abhishek and Gill stitched together a brilliant 105-run stand for the opening wicket that laid down the foundation for their run chase.

"I will 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 behave. 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 and some of the words during the game from the Pakistan bowling unit. I thought the guys stuck really well to the task of getting the job done and winning the game," Ten Doeschate concluded.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Haris Rauf Ryan ten Doeschate Asia Cup 2025 Cricket