Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey
Rashid Khan dreams of lifting the T20 World Cup in the coming years considering the nation’s talent. Afghanistan Cricket Board, which was formulated in 1995, got ICC affiliation in 2001 and in 2017 received full ICC Membership status, which includes Test cricket. After becoming the face of this budding team, Khan has influenced the country’s cricket and has garnered a lot of recognition across the globe.
Even in his IPL matches where he represents the Hyderabad team, his bowling pace has inspired alot of youngsters back home. Coming from a humble background and having instability in the country saw a lot of tough times in his sport career. “It feels amazing to be someone who is changing the life of youngsters. To be someone who is helping change their mindset and plans about what they want to become in the future,” Rashid told to R Ashwin on his YouTube show DRS with Ashwin.
Rashid has played a key role in changing the face of the game in Afghanistan. “The biggest dream of the whole country was to be called a Full Member team and to play a Test game,” Rashid said. “That was something which we were all hoping and praying for, the whole country, and we were not expecting that to happen as soon as it did. When you’re playing a Test game against India in India, it’s more than a dream for everyone.
Recalling his first Test match in India, Rashid said that it took time for them to sink into that feeling of playing a red-match game as everything felt surreal. “When we were playing against you guys in our first Test game, we didn’t know what we were doing. Everyone was just counting – I’m going to be the first one to hit a four, the first one to hit a six, the first one to take a single. Everyone was just so excited to play the first game and to get to the ground and do his best. It wasn’t the best game for us, but there were so many things we learned”, he said.
However, now that they have achieved full ICC status, the star legspinner feels they have full potential to lift the ICC T20 World Cup as they are not at short when it comes to talented players. “I think the biggest achievement [for Afghanistan] should be, right now, what the team is looking for, what the country is expecting is, to win the T20 World Cup, because we have all the skills, talent, and we just need to have that belief in ourselves that we can do it. Talent-wise we are so good, we have the spinners, we have the fast bowlers, we have the batting skills as well. But what took us down in that Test was our experience against big teams, because we didn’t play enough cricket with them”, he said.
The next T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played in India in October-November 2021. Meanwhile, Rashid Khan will be playing in the IPL in UAE for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
