Rashid Khan is easily among our modern-day greats when it comes to bowling in the shortest of formats. The Afghanistan leg-spinner has multiple varieties of bowling options, to which the best batters need answers.
In fact, in one of his interviews, he said he has six different deliveries to bowl in a single over. The most crucial part is Rashid does all varieties equally effectively.
This article will list four critical factors that make even world-class batters find it challenging to tackle or face Rashid Khan’s bowling.
Extra bounce
In contrast to other leg spinners, Rashid Khan releases the ball from a higher position.
He uses a 12 o’clock release to most of his deliveries — the key reason for the extra bounce he gets after the pitch of the ball.
This factor helps him find the top edge of the batters more often.
Run-up
Rashid’s charge-in to bowl is almost like a medium pacer, which helps him generate more speed than a usual spinner.
Speed has been his strength. He creates very little time for the batsman to think and react.
Along with the fast run-up, the resultant powerful shoulder rotation adds speed to his balls.
Length and Line
Unlike the other leg spinners, Rashid uses his fingers more than his wrist — the reason why you won’t find him bowling full-toss or short-pitched balls.
Rashid usually bowls right on the good length that makes his variations worthy.
He adjusts the line of the ball according to the variation of the ball he bowls.
Unpredictability
Predictability is the factor that helps batters take the lead over the bowlers in modern-day cricket. Rashid, with his variations and masterly executions, keeps his deliveries consistently unpredictable.
With his five unique variations and the extra pace he generates every time he charges in, the Afghan leg-spinner has been the clueless subject for any modern-day batsman.
He can mix all his five variations in six balls in an over. This makes him lethal, especially in the shortest format, where the batters have very little time to read a bowler.
How to Play Rashid Khan?
So, how far will the Rashid Khan mystery last? We have seen mystery spinners coming in and deteriorating at one point.
Will batters develop a new weapon to tackle the Afghan gunpoint, or will it be Rashid, the hoodwinker, who will keep winning? The wait could be long.
Well, the batsmen can try these two ways to deal with Rashid Khan’s mystery bowling:
- Be extremely good at the sweep shot and brave enough to play it at the pitch of the ball, as Callum Ferguson did against Rashid in the 2019-20 edition of the BBL.
- Or don’t mind the turns he produces and go Russell-hard against him, which is not an intelligent approach again.
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