New Delhi: For years, you have been the bowler every T20 team wants. From India to Australia to England, franchises are vying for you. Suddenly, your rhythm goes missing, and you no longer come across as threatening. There were questions: Has he lost his magic? Has he been found out? Has he been exposed?
Rashid Khan battled those questions and some more, even in his own head, but if his 3/17 with a stunning economy rate of 4.20 for Gujarat Titans against Delhi Capitals is a marker, he seems to be on his way back.
Last year, the Afghan spinner picked up 9 wickets in 15 IPL matches (ER 9.35). In 2024, he took 10 wickets in 12 matches (ER 8.40) – a major drop from his overall IPL standard between 2017 and 2023 of 139 wickets in 109 matches (avg of 19 wickets a season, ER 7.09).
Rashid believes the loss of rhythm can be attributed to the back injury he sustained in 2023. For a while, he played with chronic pain from the injury, which his bowling action caused. He underwent a spinal decompression surgery that year to relieve nerve pressure but the rhythm eluded him until recently.
“When I had surgery and came back, I was very careful with my back. I think that affected my bowling action and release. I was trying to be careful, but I think I missed a little bit of my rhythm,” he told reporters after the match. “I was bowling slow for three or four months, and my body just took that shape. It wasn’t the same as before the surgery.”
“After having a bad season, I thought about what was wrong and what I was missing. I felt it was the whole rhythm, from start to finish. What was holding me back was a bit of lingering pain and the fear of what might happen if I pushed it again. So, I worked on my core to make it as strong as possible to go on with the tournament.”
Despite his doctor’s instruction to him to avoid longer spells, he proceeded with playing red-ball cricket. In his most recent Test against Zimbabwe, where he returned 11 wickets in the match, bowling nearly 55 overs.
“Red-ball cricket is a little difficult because that was the first thing my doctor told me: ‘Stay away from red-ball cricket. I still went ahead and played. After the surgery, I played a game against Zimbabwe and bowled 55 overs, which was crazy. The doctor told me, ‘If you don’t want to play cricket, you can keep playing red-ball cricket. He said it’s not going to help me and that I won’t be able to play for long.’” He also hinted at the possibility of missing the upcoming Test against India in June.
“The doctor told me, ‘If you want to keep playing for Afghanistan, you can’t play red-ball cricket,” said Rashid. “Red-ball (cricket) is difficult to maintain. I might take one Test a year, but I don’t think I can do more than that.”
Currently, Rashid is focusing on what’s working and tapping into what made him so fearsome in this format. He is not looking to add more variations and is confident that his existing ones – the googly, the flipper and the leg break — are enough to keep the batters guessing.
“In the last two games, I think I bowled well, but where I conceded runs, it was just the length I missed. If I hit the right area, the right thing will happen. If I bowl badly, anybody can hit me. As a bowler, you should just think: ‘What is the toughest ball I can bowl on this wicket to make it hard for the batter?’”
