My quick arm action is a plus point for me, says Rashid Khan

PakistanToday

7 years ago

KABUL: Rashid Khan’s incredible rise has been one of the success stories in world cricket over the past few years.

According to ICC, ranked No.1 on the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings for bowlers, the leg-spinner from Afghanistan has 47 wickets from 29 T20 Internationals at 13.72 and an impressive economy rate of 5.86. In T20s overall, he has 141 wickets from 97 outings at almost similar numbers – average 15.79 and economy 5.92.

With several variations up his sleeve, Khan has emerged as the leading bowler for Afghanistan in 50-over and 20-over cricket, and is a star for most of the T20 franchises he plays for, at the moment, that’s Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League 2018.

As wrist-spinners become increasingly important to a team’s cause, more and more teams have been looking to avail Khan’s services. He attributes his success in some parts to his bowling action, which he believes is different from that of other leg-spinners.

“I think the main thing is that my action is little bit different from other leg-spinners. I bowl quicker than them and my quick arm action makes it difficult to judge which way it (the ball) is going. That’s a plus point for me. I am taking advantage of that and it’s helping me,” said Rashid on the day he picked up 2/11 in four overs to help shoot Mumbai Indians out for 87 to give Hyderabad a 31-run win.

Khan has been a mixed bag in IPL 2018. After picking up three wickets in his first three games, he was taken for 55 and 49 runs in the next two.

“You cannot learn until you’re hit for runs in T20 cricket,” pointed out Khan. “It’s cricket, and these kinds of things keep happening. There are a lot of things that I learnt from this, especially in the last two games. Giving 55 and 48 (49) in two games wasn’t expected from me. But for my future, it was good. I learned from that what I should have done that time.”

Khan, who led Afghanistan for a short while during the recently-concluded ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018, feels Kane Williamson, his captain at Hyderabad, is a ‘fighting captain’.

“I think he is a very fighting captain. How he kept the team in the hunt when we were defending 120 (118) …” Khan said after Hyderabad successfully defended 118 against Mumbai.

“What he told us was to be positive and said, ‘If we didn’t do it (score big runs), how they can do it?’ He kept everyone’s morale positive. Everyone believed that you just need to be positive and give your 100%.”