MUMBAI: Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is an IPL legend—160 wickets from 138 games with a great economy rate of 7.11. After a tough IPL 2025 when he took just nine wickets in 15 games, the 27-year-old Gujarat Titans leg-spinner has a point to prove this season, as the strike bowler and as a leader, stepping in when skipper Shubman Gill is unavailable. In an interview to HT, he talks about being a spinner in T20 and the controversial Impact Player rule, among others.
Excerpts:
Losing two close games must have been tough (to PBKS and RR).
Yeah, it’s not easy. Over the past few years, we have won those (close) games. That’s why we made it to the top four thrice in the last four seasons. Those last crucial couple of overs, with the bat or with the ball, we have done really well. In the last two games, we missed that. First game (vs PBKS) we needed to defend 16. Last game, we were chasing 16 off the last two overs (vs RR). We hope everyone learns from the mistakes, still 12 games to go.
You have a major role in GT, as lead spinner and a leader. How is your rhythm in this IPL?
My body is feeling good compared to last year. I am feeling confident. Over the last 6-7 months I have been bowling in good rhythm. After (shoulder) surgery, I never felt like that. Definitely, this IPL it’s (my role) going to be important, with the bat and ball, and to share the experience (with teammates).
How did you analyse your last IPL season? What correction did you have to do?
I felt that the line and length (was missing). More than the line, I felt the length was something I had missed. I studied my line and length with the analyst. You have seen my line and length over the first 6-7 years of IPL. I have just worked on that. After surgery, I hadn’t given myself enough time to fully recover, instead (I kept) playing for Afghanistan.
I made a mistake, hurrying back to play without fully recovering. If my body doesn’t go through all the momentum, the rhythm is not there… That was something I have worked on. I’ve focussed on my fitness, recovered fully and come back with a better mindset and body language.
It is not easy being a bowler in T20. How can bowlers, especially spinners, strike back? Pacers have change of pace, bouncers, etc. What can spinners do?
Nothing much. You can only vary your pace, adjust line and length. You have to be very smart, very brave with your decision and clear in your mind. That’s something you can do as a spinner. Sometimes when you bowl a good ball and that goes for a boundary, you start thinking, “Oh, my good ball is going for boundaries. Now, what’s next?” You just need to stick to your plan, and your main weapon, and trust that.
You can’t bowl yorkers or slow, short-pitched deliveries like pacers. With finger spinners, sometimes they’re trying to bowl those wide yorkers. But with wrist spin, that becomes super hard. What you can do is give yourself some time and trust your main delivery. That’s something I do. I see the batter, where he’s strong, what are the areas he can hit me for a boundary. Make it harder for him to hit me there. If he goes from there as well, nothing much to do. But first you have to make it as hard for him as possible.
Are you working on new variations? And which spinners in IPL have impressed you?
I’ve definitely been working on a few things, but can’t really say now. Hopefully, I get to play the longer format a bit more, ODI. And then can try to bring it in that.
Spinner-wise in IPL, the way (Yuzvendra) Chahal is bowling, Varun Chakravarthy… it’s so good. When a spinner performs well for the team in a tough situation, it gives you a good feeling. (And) Noor Ahmad is playing for CSK. All of them, when they do well for the team, it makes you happy as a spinner.
What is your opinion on the Impact Player rule?
To be honest, since the rule has come, I’ve never seen the bowlers coming to bat. I don’t know, it’s crazy. It does make it harder for you as a bowler when you have an extra batter. Plus, if in the team you have a couple of allrounders, the batting never finishes.
So, you just keep going harder at a bowler — No.9, No.10, they can bat as well… Before, you were only thinking about getting the first five, then the allrounder came, and then the bowlers start. Now that scenario is gone, you have to tackle 10, 11 batters. If every batter scores 20 runs, the team is easily going to make 200. If you look into the GT-RR game, our second highest scorer made 26, but we still managed 204.
