San Francisco Unicorns pacer Haris Rauf has been sidelined for the rest of MLC 2025 due to a hamstring injury.
New Zealand left-arm quick Ben Lister has been named as his replacement.
The MLC confirmed that Rauf sustained the injury on July 4 during the match against Texas Super Kings. While fielding in the eighth over of the chase, he chased a drive from Romario Shepherd and clutched his hamstring immediately after stopping the ball. He managed to bowl just one over in that game before leaving the field.
An MRI scan later revealed a Grade 1 hamstring strain, ruling him out of the playoffs and forcing Pakistan to withdraw him from their squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh starting July 20.
“𝑹𝒂𝒖𝒇 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕-𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕-𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 17 𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒔,” 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒅.
Lister Steps In as Replacement
Lister, who had been training with the Unicorns squad, played his first MLC match in the final league game against Los Angeles Knight Riders on July 6. He struggled with the ball, conceding 43 runs in just 2.1 overs as Unicorns failed to secure a top-two finish.
Despite that loss, San Francisco finished third overall with seven wins in ten games and will face MI New York in the Eliminator on Thursday in Dallas.
“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝒖𝒑,” 𝒂 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅.
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