Dubai: Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan revealed that he grew up admiring legendary players like Sachin Tendulkar, Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble.

Since 2017, Rashid has been the leading T20 wicket-taker with 333 wickets, and second on the economy rate. He scalped 18 wickets in 14 innings in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in UAE.

"Batting-wise, I always loved watching Sachin Tendulkar. [Back then] I wasn't the kind of player with a mindset of hitting sixes. I loved playing down the ground, singles, and boundaries. I don't know how and why I changed my mind to now mainly focusing on hitting sixes," said the Afghanistan spinner to ESPNcricinfo.

"Bowling-wise, definitely Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble. Even at home, playing against my brothers, I was bowling quicker leg-spin [like Afridi and Kumble]. I loved watching them on TV. I still watch videos [of them] on YouTube - there are so many things I learned from them and still do," he added.

Khan also said that earlier he had no hopes of being an international cricketer as there was no proper Afghanistan team back then.

"I used to dream about these three players and imagine being them. We didn't have a proper Afghanistan team back then and there were no hopes for us to be international cricketers, so watching them was a great, great time. And now when I meet them, it is more than a dream," he said.

Afghanistan will be playing their opening match of the ICC men's T20 World Cup on October 25 and the team will face Pakistan in their second clash on October 29.

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