What makes Rashid Khan’s bowling technique so unique?

What makes Rashid Khan bowling technique so unique? (Photo Source: X(Twitter)

Growing up and taking sport is like a herculean task for anyone in a war-torn country where each passing day becomes a matter of survival and a never-ending risk of getting displaced. Born in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, Rashid Khan‘s story has been immensely inspirational and inspiring. Growing up with five brothers in such a challenging environment only made him a man of ‘courage and resilience’ with big dreams in his eyes. The habit of overcoming various adversities in a period of war strengthened the sheer determination of Khan to play cricket for the pride of the nation which may bring some happiness to people’s faces even in times of despair.

Fascinatingly enough, during an interview, Rashid revealed that initially, he wanted to be a doctor rather than a cricketer as he was fairly good in his studies. However, instability led his family to take refuge in Pakistan due to safety concerns, where he found his solace in cricket. The result? Rashid Khan ended up idolizing the renowned Pakistan player Shahid Afridi, albeit, for his quick arm-actioned leg spin bowling and not for his explosive batting.

Hence, on his 26th birthday, let’s have a look at how Rashid Khan evolved his bowling style as time slipped like sand, thereby unraveling the cricket journey of the talismanic Afghanistan legend.

5)  Unique Release and Finger Grip style

After gaining some valuable experience in Pakistan by playing club cricket, Rashid Khan finally returned to Afghanistan when the war was over. Everything may have changed for the leg-spin wizard but one thing remained unchanged, the love and passion for cricket. Khan started honing his skills further by playing with his brothers which also gave him an excuse to escape the brutal realities and impact of war on a country. Gradually, he moved up the ranks in Afghanistan cricket and soon became famous for his bowling genius.

But he never left improvising on his bowling and kept experimenting and further refining his unique bowling style. Unlike most leg spinners, Rashid’s grip is very identical to that of an off-spinner.  As a result, he can bowl quicker through the air. Moreover, to achieve better control and accuracy, the willy cricketer releases the ball through the fingertips instead of using his palm, which separates him from the rest of the leg spinners. When it comes to the release point, he uses his index finger differently by using it behind the seam while using the middle finger over the seam to achieve variations in spin to keep the batters guessing.

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4) Mastering Googly

Rashid Khan when in his zone, proves lethal with his mysterious googlies. The 26-year-old at first found it hard to create impact with his googly. But, later on, worked on it to make the life of a batter tougher.

Khan developed a deceptive grip to execute a googly. The key reason for that is that his leg-spin grip and googly grip are quite similar which makes it tougher for a batter to read him. Especially when a bowler is quicker through the air, it becomes nightmarish to evade the stump-to-stump line.

3)  Googly variations

Apart from his usual Googly, Rashid Khan also has two variations of Googlies in his bowling arsenal. The first variation is the regular googly a leg spin bowler typically bowls with an upfront seam.

Another lethal variation is the one where his release point is higher than usual. Consequently, this not only allows him to be deceptive through the air but also helps him to generate extra bounce. Hence, in crunch moments of a match, the batters often find it difficult to go for big shots against him.

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2) Quick arm bowling action

As mentioned earlier, Rashid Khan modeled his bowling action on his idol Shahid Afridi. As a result, he developed a quick-arm bowling action. This essentially allows him to bowl at a higher pace than other leg spinners quite consistently.

The icing on the cake part of his leg spin is that along with the pace, his action allows batters less reaction time to visualize or commit to a shot earlier. Another factor that sets him apart is his impeccable control of the ball thereby giving no chance to a batter to improvise in the last minute.

1) Mixing up consistent line and variable lengths

The most incredible part about Rashid Khan is his game awareness. He knows how to set up a batter quite efficiently under the art of deception. The talismanic Afghanistan cricketer not only bowls in a consistent channel but also suddenly changes his strategy without the batter taking the cue upfront. While on most occasions, the 26-year-old bowls in the good-length channel to keep batters under check.

Along with that, his subtle short variations do the trick. It has been noticed that Rashid Khan bowls slightly shorter lengths as a part of his variations more often than a cricket aficionado would expect a typical legspinner to do so. The code deciphered behind this strategy is to tempt the batters to think that the leggie is bowling loosely and can be put away with ease. However, tempting to go for bigger shots means a greater risk of getting out and due to this mind game, the Afghani spinner often proves to be quite economical.

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