New Delhi: Teenaged Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan was on Saturday retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auctions. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) originally made a bid of INR 9 Crore which was eventually overlapped by SRH using Right to Match (RTM). The RTM option enables a franchise to retain a player from the previous squad by matching the bidding price. However, teams can use limited RTM cards.
Ahead of the auction, Khan was tipped to attract one of the highest prices. At the 2017 auctions, the spinner became the second Afghanistan player, after Mohammad Nabi, to be picked for IPL.
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Khan, who was picked by SRH for INR 4 Crore in 2017, went on to dish out many match-winning performances for the team. The spinner picked 17 wickets from 14 matches during the tenth edition of IPL.
With SRH retaining Khan, Twitterati were not far from expressing their views. Most of them for sure were happy for the spinner from Afghanistan.
Here are some of the reactions:
Khan is known for outfoxing the batsmen with his variations. Googly apparently happens to be his key variation. In T20 internationals Khan has scalped 42 wickets from 27 matches and has an impressive economy rate of 5.91 runs per over.