When Rashid Khan started his IPL journey, he was an enigma and the batters were falling left, right and center to his sorcery. However, cricketers adapt and the batters find one way or the other to come around even if you are facing the scariest boogeymen in the sport’s antiquity.
That has exactly been the case of Rashid Khan where he still proves to be a thorn in the flesh of the batters and now knowing the leg-spinning extraordinaire that he usually is, batters in IPL plays him out, keeping in mind that they are not going to attack him.
Here is what Brian Lara had to say about Rashid Khan
This nullifies the added advantage of being a leg-spinner and the menace that he was, it usually boils down to zilch. One of the primary roles of a leg-spinner is how adept he is at turning the ball and making the batters toil. Had he been bowling at the death overs, maybe it could have been a different story altogether but no matter how good a spinner is, if he is coming out in the end, the batters will be attacking him.
Rashid has so far been instrumental for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and has totted up his scalps tally to 93 wickets from just 76 games at an economy rate of 6.3. Despite his long residence in the echelons of the Sunrisers, the Orange Army wasn’t interested in keeping him in their ranks and he was allowed to let go.
However, just ahead of the mega-auction, he was roped in by the Gujarat Titans, bolstering their ranks. So far in IPL 2022, he has claimed eight wickets from seven games and has bowled at a miserly economy rate of 6.5 runs per over.
The Sunrisers preceptor, Brian Lara had totally different opinion about the Afghan leggie, however. While talking to Kevin Pietersen on Saturday during their game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, he was heard quoting, “I have great respect for Rashid Khan but I believe we have the right combination. Rashid Khan was someone who opposition teams decided to defend against, he was not much of a wicket-taker.”
The Caribbean batting virtuoso, however, was pretty happy at the bevy of spinners that SRH has at their disposal namely Washington Sundar, J Suchith and Shreyas Gopal. He said, “Yes (economy of) 5.5-6 runs per over is great but I think when you have a guy like Washington Sundar spinning the ball into the left-handers in the first six overs, He is an asset. Suchith has come in as his replacement due to injury and he is an asset as well.”
He concluded on the note, “We have gone in with four fast bowlers every single game so far. Of course, the pitches may change, they may have less grass later on. We have Shreyas Gopal as well, though he hasn’t had a game so far. He is also someone who has a hat-trick in the IPL. I still think we have a lot in the reserves to show the IPL and I am not too worried. All respect to Rashid Khan, if he was a member of this team, I think we might have been 7 out of 7, I don’t know.”
