King Rashid Khan – At 21 years, an all-format cult figure

Few bowlers have garnered as much attention before 21 years of age as Rashid Khan has in his career so far. A revolutionary leg-spinner from war-torn Afghanistan, Rashid was an instant hit in T20 cricket for his variations and wicket-taking abilities. That his rise coincided with the gaining popularity of wrist spinners aided him, but he was never going to be obscure for too long.

The Afghanistan spinner completes 21 years of age and his performances so far in cricket have been outrageous. From storming into the scene as a short-format bowler, the leg-spinner evolved into a brilliant fifty-overs spinner and has now established his supremacy in Tests, too. As captain of the new Test side, Rashid Khan has been pivotal in their two Test wins to date. Here we take a glance at his career across formats.

T20s and T20Is

That he is just 21 but is already the fourth-highest wicket-taker among spinners in the history of T20Is speaks volumes about Rashid Khan the bowler. His 79 wickets is overshadowed by only Shahid Afridi (98), Shakib Al Hasan (91) and Saeed Ajmal (85). But Rashid’s numbers come with a mind-boggling average of 11.63 and an economy of 6.04.

Even in overall T20s, Rashid has made rapid strides. He is the 11^th highest wicket-taker in all T20s, a list headed by Dwayne Bravo and Lasith Malinga.

Rashid with 265 wickets, though, has the best average and best strike rate among the top 20 wicket-takers in all T20s.

ODIs

His success had seeped seamlessly into ODIs, too. After picking up a maiden four-wicket haul against Ireland in Belfast in 2016, Rashid broke through with a mesmerising spell of 7 for 18 against West Indies at Gros Islet in mid-2017 as the other teams were intensely involved in the Champions Trophy.

Since his debut in 2018, no spinner has been more successful in the format than Rashid Khan. He has 131 wickets at an average of 17.8 and an economy just above 4. Even if most of those have come against Associate Nations, the incredible average and strike rate puts Rashid in a different league altogether.

Only one other spinner has taken over 100 wickets in this time frame but none beat Rashid’s tally of 131 wickets.

Tests

The beginning to his Test career wasn’t all that rosy with him going for 154 runs for just two wickets in the Bengaluru Test against India. An economy of 4.42 and critics were quick to dub Rashid as a limited-overs specialist who thrived against second-string sides.

The leg-spinner, though, roared back to silence them with a five-wicket haul at Dehradun against Ireland to help Afghanistan to their first-ever Test win. Then against an established Test side like Bangladesh at Chattogram, Rashid snared 11 wickets in the Test and won the Man of the Match award. In addition to the massive haul, the leg-spinner had also added a brilliant counter-attacking half-century.

From limited-overs specialist to Test match bowler and Test captain, Rashid’s growth chart has been phenomenal. A cult hero like no other for Associate teams, Rashid has shown that it doesn’t take a country like Australia or England or India to produce exceptional cricketing heroes. At 21, that’s a massive name tag attached to a player, but Rashid has deserved every bit of the adulation that has come his way.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Dibyangshu Sarkar