Rashid Khan is undoubtedly one of the top performers of Afghanistan cricket. With a knack of picking up wickets in regular intervals in T20 cricket, Khan is considered as a doyen of T20 cricket.
He has been the torchbearer of cricket in Afghanistan and is easily, the face of cricket in the war-torn nation. For the people over there who suffer a lot of atrocities and misdoings because of political turmoil, cricket comes as a fresh breath of air and is enough to make people forget their everyday problems.
As for Afghanistan cricket, after their abysmal campaign in the ICC ODI World Cup 2019, where they failed to win a single game, a lot of expectations were there on them for this edition.
But they haven’t been able to start off on a positive note and have suffered back-to-back losses in the World Cup. After a 6-wicket loss at the hands of Bangladesh in their first game, the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side, suffered another 8-wicket loss at the hands of hosts, India.
Now the question arises, is there main player, Rashid Khan, performing well? The answer is a plain and simple, no! Rashid Khan might be taking wickets against lower-ranked teams and in T20Is, but he is not being able to replicate that in the ODI format and against higher ranked teams.
We can predict, a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Rashid Khan is used to having 5 fielders outside the 30-yard circle in T20Is. But in ODIs, there are only 4 fielders outside the 30-yard circle from overs 11-40. In the first 10 overs, which is considered as the powerplay, there are only 2 players outside the circle.
This is not helping Khan as the players can take him to the cleaners, with a lot of freedom. Players from teams like England, India and Australia have batters who pick the gaps beautifully and are making sure that Khan is smeared all across the park.
Secondly, in T20I cricket and in T20 cricket, batters always have it on them, to play the big shots. As there are only 20 overs, players naturally have to play an aggressive brand of cricket.
But in ODI cricket, players don’t have to go all guns blazing from ball 1. They can take their time and not play risky cricket. This is again backfiring for Rashid Khan as he is predominantly, an attacking bowler, who goes for the kill, rather than an economical bowler.
Also read: ICC ODI World Cup 2023: 3 Reasons Why Australia Are Not Performing Well
