Haris Rauf's injury scare over, Shadab to be assesed tomorrow

The injury scare faced by Pakistan after the rib sprain felt by pacer Haris Rauf is now over as the bowler's scans came clear on Tuesday.

The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed no signs of injury to Rauf, ruling out his chances to miss any World Cup match ahead.

The right-arm pacer underwent scanning tests after experiencing a sprain in his ribs during New Zealand's innings in the match at Bengaluru's M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on November 4.

Meanwhile, all-rounder Shadab Khan has also recovered well from the concussion he suffered during a match with South Africa last month.

Shadab landed awkwardly on his shoulder and his head hit the ground during their narrow loss to Proteas, to be later replaced by Usama Mir in the next match with Bangladesh.

It was Shadab's third concussion since September last year.

However, the leg-spinner has reportedly recovered well and is set to be assessed on the training day tomorrow.

As Pakistan now prepare to take on the struggling England team on November 11, the team members will resume their training from tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm local time after spending a day off today (Tuesday).

After a much-needed victory through DLS method in the rain-hit match against New Zealand on Saturday, there are still many ifs and buts on whether Babar Azam's men can qualify for the World Cup semi-finals.

It is pertinent to look into the factors that might decide the Green Shirts' prospects of making it to the knockout stage of the tournament.

The best-case scenario for Pakistan is to secure a win against England and if Sri Lanka beat the Kiwis on November 9, the national side might likely qualify for the semis.

Apart from this straightforward scenario, the Men in Green's future in the tournament also depends upon Afghanistan, who currently are tied with Pakistan with eight points.

If Afghanistan win their next two matches — against Australia and South Africa — they will qualify for the semis with 12 points.

However, even if they win one of their two remaining matches and Pakistan also wins their next match against England, both teams will again tie on the points table with 10 points, bringing the net run-rate (NRR) into play.

At present, Pakistan's NRR stands at +0.036 as compared to Afghanistan's -0.330. However, the equation might change as Pakistan are yet to play one more match, whereas Afghanistan have two more matches in the tournament.