KABUL’s ace spinner Rashid Khan, seeking to hold his nerve, says he would not tweak his bowling action in the upcoming one-off Test match against India.
In an interview and Indian news agency, the 19-year-old said he was ready for the five-day match that he called a test of patience for him and his side.
“Being a Test cricketer is not a lot different to playing ODIs and T20s,” the world‘s No.1 T20 bowler was quoted as saying on Monday.
He added: “If I make changes in my bowling thinking about the Test, it will not be good for me. I will bowl with the same speed I have been bowling so far.”
The leg-spinner from eastern Nangarhar province plans to avoid panic. He is aware he may not capture a wicket for 20 overs. “And I could pick up two in two overs. It is Test cricket.”
Rashid hasn’t been home for a year and lost a friend to one of Afghanistan’s several terror attacks quite recently but is determined to be in the best possible frame of mind on the field for the sake of his “troubled people”.
“I have not gone home in a year. I miss my family and friends a lot. It also hurts a lot to hear about blasts back home. Even in the IPL (for Sunrisers Hyderabad) when there was a blast in my hometown, I was really upset. I lost a friend in that,” he said.
“Another one of my friend had called me that day and asked why I was not my usual smiling self in the game.
“So, all these incidents do affect me a lot but I try to keep myself in the best possible frame of mind to give a good performance on the field so that the troubled people back home get something to cheer about. The 10-ball 34 in the IPL qualifier against Kolkata Knight Riders was without doubt one of the impact T20 knocks this year. But ask him about his phenomenal rise and the all-rounder prefers to talk it down. “I never thought in my life that I would be able to achieve so much in such a short time. It is like a dream,” he said.
And an extension of this dream has been the wholesome praise coming from legends such as Sachin Tendulkar, who called him the world’s best T20 bowler right now. “Sachin’s tweet was unreal. I kept on thinking for hours what to reply to him. I was really happy. Virat also praised me a lot and Dhoni also during the course of the IPL. It lifts your confidence a lot when they compliment you,” he said.
PAN Monitor/mud
