The subtle mastery of Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan has been there and done that. Again and again, for years now.

On Monday, he was in Dubai, doing what he does. The pitch favoured turn, but how Rashid would use it was not immediately evident. Rashid, after all, is more like a human slingshot than a wristspinner: extravagant turn is not his thing.

When Rashid was introduced, West Indies were behind the game: 45 for 3 at the end of the powerplay, chasing 182. His go-to ball is on a good length, right at the stumps, making up around 23.47% of the deliveries he has bowled since the beginning of 2024. On this pitch, however, he adjusted his line to outside the off stump, and went short of a good length: seven deliveries out of 24 pitched on this spot, roughly. The batters took only three runs off them.

His action makes the ball keep low and skid onto the batter. The shorter length forced the batters to stay inside the crease for fear of the ball coming back in at speed. They ended up conceding 15 dots to Rashid as a result.

In Rashid's first over, four consecutive deliveries were pitched well outside off.

Shimron Hetmyer deemed it safe to counter this by attempting to sweep him instead of playing him straight. When he got down on his knees, however, Rashid landed the ball full and right in line with the stumps. It was quicker through the air too, so Hetmyer had to have a go despite being out of position. The shot was mistimed, and fell into the hands of deep square leg.

Rashid returned to his bread and butter line and length for this dismissal, but his second wicket followed an even more interesting prologue. Earlier in the over - his second in the match, and the ninth overall - he bowled a delivery from way behind, at least a couple of arms, the crease.

Since he released the ball early, the ball also lost pace on the way to the batter. Instead of him slowing his delivery down at the point of release, he had pushed the point of release back to achieve the same effect. This ball landed and skidded through at an even lower trajectory than it otherwise would have.

Quentin Sampson, the batter, managed to push it out. But the intended effect had been achieved.

Soon after, Rashid returned to his favourite line and length. He ran in, whipped the ball fuller, right from the crease this time, and right in front of middle stump. Amir Jangoo was down on his knees trying to sweep - either because of his inability to read the line, or reacting to what he had seen earlier.

He missed, the ball hit him flush on the pads. And when Rashid lands it there, the umpire wastes no time in raising his finger.

By the time Rashid had walked away after his spell of 2 for 19, he sat on 693 T20 wickets, just seven from being the first to the 700-mark in the format. He will slingshot his way to the record soon enough.

For now, though, 11 years into international cricket and wiser by 513 T20s played across the world, Rashid has proved once again that the continued longevity of his craft lies in the subtleties. No matter where he turns up next - and especially on the subcontinent for the T20 World Cup next month - he will continue to do exactly that: maximising his skillset, subtle variation after subtle variation.