Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan has been Afghanistan's first global superstar, and the key to their successes in their early years in international cricket. His extraordinarily effective legspin has made him one of the greatest T20 bowlers ever, among the first names on wishlists of teams in leagues all around the world.

Not a big turner of the ball, he puts batters under pressure with his speed through the air, like his bowling idol Shahid Afridi, while maintaining a stump-to-stump line. His biggest weapon is an accurate googly, and he has variations aplenty. With bat in hand he is more than capable of clearing the boundary late in an innings, and he has airbrushed many a middling total into a match-winning one for his team.

Rashid was just 17 when he made his ODI debut on Afghanistan's tour of Zimbabwe in October 2015. Less than two years later, he was snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL for close to US$600,000. After a superb 17-wicket first season with them, he picked up franchise deals with Guyana Amazon Warriors - for whom he took the first-ever hat-trick in the CPL in 2017 - and Adelaide Strikers, with whom he won his (and their) first BBL title in 2018. He scaled new heights for Afghanistan as well, taking 5 for 3 in a T20I against Ireland to keep a record 11-match T20I winning streak alive, and later in 2017, taking his country to a win over West Indies in their first ODI in the Caribbean with 7 for 18. He was duly honoured as the 2017 ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year.

The following year, he became the youngest cricketer to top the ODI bowling rankings, the youngest man to captain an international side, and the fastest to 100 ODI wickets.

In Afghanistan's inaugural year in Test cricket, Rashid took five second-innings wickets in their first win, against Ireland, and six months later made an important fifty and took twin five-fors, finishing with 11 wickets in a famous win over Bangladesh in Chattogram. In 2021, he took 11 again, this time in a win over Zimbabwe.

In his five seasons with Sunrisers, he was a totemic presence, taking 93 wickets at an economy rate of 6.33. When he moved to Gujarat Titans in 2022, he took 19 wickets in a run that led the side to the title.