Brilliant cricketer Rashid Khan is the new ray of hope, peace, and inspiration for the Afghans. Especially, the youth of Afghanistan. As per him, a hundred percent of people in Afghanistan have started watching cricket after he started rubbing shoulders with the cricketing stars. In this article, we will see 5 qualities which make Rashid Khan such a brilliant cricketer.
He played with cricketers like Warner, Williamson, and Dhawan in the IPL 2017 and IPL 2018. And many other stars in other leagues, such as, 2017-18 Big Bash League in Australia and 2017 Caribbean Premier League to name a few.
Here are 5 qualities that make Rashid Khan one of the most brilliant cricketers:
1. Fitness and fielding
Rashid Khan is known to work extra hard on his fitness. This 20-year-old is one of the fittest players today on the lines of Kohli, Jadeja, ABD, etc
The speed with which he chases the balls, the swiftness, and the elegance, with which he stops the balls, especially those dives near the boundary lines and most importantly the promptness and accuracy with which he throws back the balls, all show highest fielding standards.
Watching him field in the ground are moments of pure pleasure for cricket fans and moments of great pride for his captain and teammates.
2. Lethal bowling spells
There are some bowlers who can create action on every ball. As a batsman, you cannot lose focus and take even a single ball lightly. And if you do lose focus for even a single ball, you may already find yourself walking back to the dressing room. Such is the intensity, the discipline, and the spin with which Khan bowls.
He is constantly improving his bowling skills. He likes thinking on his feet and making last second changes based on batsman’s reactions. As a result, he is very unpredictable and very difficult for a batsman to read.
What an amazing bowler! By the way, do you know, in September 2017, he took a hat-trick for Guyana Amazon Warriors in CPL? It was the first hat-trick in CPL history.
3. Versatile batting acumen
Does your team need someone to score those quick runs under the highest pressure conditions? There are very few reliable players which you can have on your team. Some of the names which come to my mind are Dhoni, AB de Villiers, Kohli, Maxwell, and Guptill.
Rashid Khan is definitely the newest addition to the list. Only two-three overs left? Consider 25-30 more runs added to your score when Rashid is on the crease. He has many times turned around average or poor team scores into super competitive final scores. All this in a matter of few overs.
He has the ability to play big shots all around the ground. To sum up, he can destroy the good bowling figures of any opponent bowler in a matter of few overs.
4. Ability to bounce back
What makes great players great? Or for that matter any person great? It is their ability to persist in bad times and bounce back stronger. They bounce back with increased determination to succeed. Rashid Khan did have his bad patches.
At the start of the 2018 IPL season, he did not do well and was low on confidence. Everyone thought he was just a flash in the pan of the last season.
But he worked harder and soon gave one of the best stints for the rest of the season. Today he is the youngest captain in the international cricket. He is current World no.2 ODI bowler after Jasprit Bumrah. Also, a World no.1 T20 bowler followed by Shadab Khan. In addition to that, he has become the fastest to reach 100 ODI wickets.
5. Inspiration to his nation and his team
When a country is going through bad times, she needs a hero. A hero who can lift the spirits of the people and give new direction and hope for the countrymen. Rashid Khan is exactly the same type of hero for the war-scarred Afghanistan.
As a result, nowadays every youngster in the nation wants to achieve fame and success like Rashid Khan. Above all, they want to make the countrymen feel proud, as Rashid does. Moreover, people feel that if young Rashid can make it big on the international level, then why can’t they?
That is why, decades from now we may remember Rashid Khan as someone who brought a real wave of sports culture in Afghanistan, ultimately bringing lasting peace and harmony in the country. Such is the power of sports and the influence of sports stars in any country.
Apart from that, his biggest influence is probably on the rest of the team. One man cannot win a cricket match for his country. But he can certainly inspire the team to give a winning performance. And that is what Rashid Khan, along with Nabi has done to the team. This is clear from Afghanistan Cricket’s many achievements in the recent past.
Whether it is the recent Test status, or winning the world cup 2019 qualifier tournament; whether it is beating West Indies in 2016 T20 World Cup in India (West Indies eventually won that world cup) or beating Sri Lanka in the Asia cup 2018, Afghanistan cricket has only risen with Rashid Khan in the team.
So we saw the 5 qualities that make Rashid Khan a brilliant cricketer. In addition to those qualities, his humble nature and charming personality, along with dedication, passion, and talent are winning him fans all over the world, and not just in Afghanistan. If you are a youngster looking to make a mark in the cricketing world, you can definitely follow Rashid Khan blindly and learn from him as much as possible. In other words, follow him and you will certainly reach your goal faster.
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