Rashid Khan perhaps has claims to the best cricketing teenage of his times. At eighteen, he not just matured to become an indispensable ration for the Afghanistan cricket team but also flaunted an elusive contract from the cash-rich Indian Premier League, a market that prides itself on being agonizingly indifferent to the concepts of sentimentalism.
In February 2017, Rashid fetched the highest bid for any Associate nation player ever, eventually having been bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 4 crore at the same auction that abandoned world's top-ranked limited-overs bowler Imran Tahir, 38 then, red-faced with no bids whatsoever.
Rashid made his One-Day International debut for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in October 2015, and rallied on to make his Twenty20 International debut against the same team later that month.
Marketing leg-spin's modern face with chic, Rashid outnumbers legbreaks with googlies, something he has perfected into a reliable and somewhat retaliatory weapon, and executes it without being ever so predictable. Having doted on Shahid Afridi's modus operandi since childhood, Rashid bowls similar lines - linear, from stump to stump - and does so at quick pace, rebelliously using his fingers more than the wrists, thus not allowing the batsman any time to shimmy out and get to the pitch of the ball. He is soon graduating into a good first-class bowler, too, evidenced by his eight-wicket match tally in Afghanistan's innings win over Ireland in the ICC Intercontinental Cup match at Greater Noida.
As much as his visible profile may belie, Rashid is an agile fielder who is well capable of putting in the dives, and then excels at clearing the big ropes in the slog overs to top it all. His growing all-round skills pave a way for him into most international sides going around, thus pitting him as someone who is readying to trail-blaze Afghanistan to better times. And from eighteen and onward, he is only going to get better. And stronger.
Written by Pratyush Sinha
In February 2017, Rashid fetched the highest bid for any Associate nation player ever, eventually having been bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 4 crore at the same auction that abandoned world's top-ranked limited-overs bowler Imran Tahir, 38 then, red-faced with no bids whatsoever.
Rashid made his One-Day International debut for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in October 2015, and rallied on to make his Twenty20 International debut against the same team later that month.
Marketing leg-spin's modern face with chic, Rashid outnumbers legbreaks with googlies, something he has perfected into a reliable and somewhat retaliatory weapon, and executes it without being ever so predictable. Having doted on Shahid Afridi's modus operandi since childhood, Rashid bowls similar lines - linear, from stump to stump - and does so at quick pace, rebelliously using his fingers more than the wrists, thus not allowing the batsman any time to shimmy out and get to the pitch of the ball. He is soon graduating into a good first-class bowler, too, evidenced by his eight-wicket match tally in Afghanistan's innings win over Ireland in the ICC Intercontinental Cup match at Greater Noida.
As much as his visible profile may belie, Rashid is an agile fielder who is well capable of putting in the dives, and then excels at clearing the big ropes in the slog overs to top it all. His growing all-round skills pave a way for him into most international sides going around, thus pitting him as someone who is readying to trail-blaze Afghanistan to better times. And from eighteen and onward, he is only going to get better. And stronger.
Written by Pratyush Sinha
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