Haris Rauf swaps Melbourne Stars for Adelaide Strikers and a full Big Bash season

Haris Rauf will spend the whole of the next Big Bash season with the Adelaide Strikers after five years at the Melbourne Stars

The Strikers confirmed on Monday that the Pakistan fast bowler has signed for the full KFC BBL|16 season, ending an association with the Stars that began in 2019 and brought him 56 wickets.

Rauf is one of three overseas players on the Adelaide list, with Ben Stokes and Mark Chapman, and the club has made a point of the fact that all three are available for the entire tournament rather than for a block of matches.

"Haris is a proven match-winner," head coach Tim Paine said of the signing. "We're thrilled to welcome Haris to Adelaide for the entire tournament."

Five seasons at the Stars

Rauf came into the Big Bash in BBL|09 as a replacement for Dale Steyn, and took a hat-trick against the Sydney Thunder at the MCG in that first season.

He was picked in the tournament's team of the year that summer and again in a later season, and leaves Melbourne with 56 wickets from five campaigns.

His best figures for the Stars were 5-27 against the Hobart Hurricanes, and he has been among the competition's leading wicket-takers in more than one season.

Availability was the priority

Paine has said that signing overseas players who could stay for a whole tournament was a target of the Strikers' off-season, and that he believes it will be a significant advantage.

Clubs routinely lose international recruits midway through a Big Bash season to national commitments, and a squad that keeps the same attack from the first match to the last is a rarer thing.

Rauf's own response was brief. "We've got a talented group and I'm looking forward to contributing wherever I can," he said, adding that he could not wait to get started with the club.

Arriving in form

He reaches Adelaide after a strong few weeks at home. In Lahore he and Shadab Khan put on an unbeaten 89 for the tenth wicket to beat England by one wicket, the highest tenth-wicket stand in a successful ODI chase.

Pakistan went on to take the one-day tri-series, beating Sri Lanka in the final in Lahore, and Rauf arrives in Australia having bowled through a full international season rather than after a lay-off.

Rauf was the leading wicket-taker at the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, and remains the quickest Pakistan bowler to 100 T20I wickets, a mark he reached in 71 matches.

A ground that already suits him

Adelaide Oval has given Rauf one of his best days in Australia. His 5-29 there in the 2024 one-day series helped Pakistan win a bilateral series in Australia for the first time in 22 years.

He is a bowler who operates regularly above 145 km/h, and the Strikers will expect him to take the new ball and return at the death.

His record in franchise cricket runs well beyond the Big Bash: 95 wickets in eight Pakistan Super League seasons, most of them for Lahore Qalandars.

The squad taking shape

Adelaide have now filled 13 of their 18 places for the season. Matt Short and Alex Carey lead the local contingent, with Lloyd Pope, Jason Sangha and Henry Thornton also contracted.

Harjas Singh, Lachie Bangs, Mitch Perry and Nathan McAndrew have joined for the new campaign, and five places remain to be filled.

Stokes and Chapman complete the overseas trio, giving Paine an attack with international experience in every department and a batting order that does not depend on one recruit.

The Strikers have not disclosed the terms of the deal, and no length beyond the coming season has been announced.

Rauf is scheduled to play his first match in Strikers colours on December 16 against the Sydney Thunder in Canberra.

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