Rashid Khan has gone on to become one of the leading leg spinners in limited overs cricket. (IPL Photo)
Rashid Khan revealed that he prefers bowling to right-handed batsme because he is able to bowl wrong’uns better to the former. At the same time, he said he loves beating the lefties with the wrong’un, regardless of whether he gets a wicket out of the delivery or not. “I prefer bowling to righty batsmen over lefties. I bowl the wrong’un much better to righties,” he is quoted as saying in an interview with ESPNCricinfo, “I still enjoy bowling to lefties, especially when I beat them with the wrong’uns, whether I get a wicket or not. Otherwise, I enjoy bowling to both kind of batsmen. But I don’t feel that “Oh, a lefty or righty is on strike now” and do things differently.”
Since making his debut with Afghanistan a few days after his 17th birthday during the team’s ODI tour of Zimbabwe in October 2015, Rashid Khan has gone on to become one of the leading leg spinners in limited overs cricket, even clinching the no.1 spot in ICC T20I bowler’s rankings. He has also been one of the most sought-after names in franchise-based T20 tournaments around the world.
Playing in IPL 2018, Rashid has been working under the Sri Lankan spin great Muttiah Muralitharan. “When he saw my action and everything, he told me, “You are absolutely perfect, and you don’t need to change anything.” He talks to me about spot bowling – focus on where I want to pitch the ball, the spot I want to target. Second thing he always tells me is that I have to remain relaxed and cool even when batsmen hit me for sixes, or even if I take five-six wickets, and that I should bowl according to my plan and targets. “What the batsmen do after that is different. You have to focus on your bowling and apart from the talent you have, you have to remain mentally strong.” That’s what he would tell me again and again. He has shared a lot of his experience with me and says that once you become mentally strong, it will help you in a lot of situations,” said Rashid.
He also said that, like Muralitharan, none of the coaches he has worked with earlier in age group level cricket tried to change his action. “Whichever coaches I worked with, not one of them tried to change my style of bowling or my action. They would always give me confidence but nobody tried to change me. The head coach with our Under-19 team, Dawlat Ahmadzai, supported me a lot and told me I had a lot of talent and that I would go far. He gave me a lot of confidence. Otherwise, there was no coach as such who taught me the technicalities like how to hold the ball, how should the action be, how to release the ball, etc. All this came naturally to me,” he said.