The ICC T20 World Cup will belong to the spinners, Afghanistan’s star leg-break bowler Rashid Khan has asserted, and stated they will beat any workforce in the event that they bat effectively within the showpiece.
Since being picked up by IPL workforce Sunrisers Hyderabad as an 18-year-old in 2017, ace leg-spinner Rashid has emerged as T20 cricket’s main wicket-taker on this interval with 333 scalps and is needed by franchises internationally.
Appearing in his second T20 World Cup, Rashid feels spinners are at all times “effective” on pitches at three venues within the UAE, the place the Super 12s, the semi-finals and remaining will likely be performed.
“Conditions here are always good for spinners and it should be spinners’ World Cup,” Rashid was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“Doesn’t matter how wickets are parepared right here, it’s at all times useful for the spinners. Spinners will play an enormous function on this World Cup.
“As we have seen in the IPL, spinners have brought back their team in the game. I feel that will be same in the World Cup as well. The best spinners will bring their team back in the game and win it.”
Rashid feels Afghanistan, who’re in Group 2 together with India, Pakistan and New Zealand, would want to do “lots of hard work” contemplating all their opponents within the Super 12s are “good players of spin”.
Afghanistan have performed 14 T20Is on the three venues within the UAE and have gained all of them.
He has identified that batting will maintain the important thing.
“As long as you have a good total, if it is a slow track, skiddy, as a spinner it is very, very helpful because you can show your skills there and you can get the wickets. In this World Cup if you bat well, we (Afghanistan) can beat any side.”
His franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad could have completed final within the recently-concluded Indian Premier League however Rashid didn’t disappoint his followers, having fun with one other glorious season with 18 wickets, the joint-highest for a spinner together with Yuzvendra Chahal and Varun Chakravarthy.
Both Chahal and Rashid have been among the many top-10 wicket-takers even within the 2020 IPL which was completely performed within the UAE versus the simply the second leg of the match this season.
Rashid was good in cricket at residence, however he by no means thought he can be one outdoors, not to mention change into the world’s main wicket-taker in T20s on the expense of pursuing a childhood ambition of practising medication.
Confined to his residence on account of strict directions from his apprehensive dad and mom about their kids’s security in a strife-torn Afghanistan after which Pakistan, it was inside these 4 partitions of his residence, throughout these difficult instances, that made Rashid “a proper cricketer”.
With the T20 World Cup across the nook, Rashid feels he’s higher off focussing on what he does greatest. (FILE)
“I mostly played cricket at home with my brothers. These were very competitive games and it was a challenge for me to get them out, to score against them, to win games. Those times made me a proper cricketer,” Rashid stated.
“I was not allowed to go outside and play with friends. My family said, anything can happen outside, you better focus on your studies, and if you want to play cricket, better play with your brothers at home.”
Rashid, who stepped down as captain within the run-up to the World Cup, stated he was initially aiming to change into a physician.“I by no means dreamed that I might be a cricketer. Yes, I used to be good at cricket at residence, however I by no means had that in my thoughts — to be a cricketer, enjoying for Afghanistan, enjoying all all over the world.
“I always had in my mind to be a doctor, which was the family’s expectation as well, especially my mom’s. She always used to tell me: we want to see you as a doctor. I was pretty good at studies as well.”