Rashid Khan of Gujarat Titans bowls during Indian Premier League 2026. (ANI Photo) NEW DELHI: Rashid Khan is the world’s number one bowler in both T20s and ODIs today, according to the latest ICC rankings. But the Afghanistan wizard – also a megastar who draws crowds across the cricketing world – was snubbed in the national under-19 selection process, according to a new biography. It was the summer of 2016 and despite the punishing sun, the teenager lined up with thousands of hopefuls from different parts of the conflict-torn country at the Ghazi Amanullah Khan Stadium, about 15 kilometers from the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.Dawlat Ahmadzai and Abdul Wali Amin, two well-known former cricketers who were coaches of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, have been tasked with scouting for talent, says the farm-fresh book “Rashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom” by Jafar Haand.
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Venugopal Rao explains the key decisions that helped DC beat RCBGo Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!The wait was long and Rashid, witnessing an open trial for the first time, was eager to show off his wares. The book vividly describes what exactly happened.One of the coaches asked him if he was a batsman or a bowler. Rashid replied that he is versatile. But the youngster was told he could only choose one of two slots: bowler or batsman.Forced to make a choice, Rashid turned to the friends who accompanied him for advice. “I spoke to my friends and chose batting as my preferred option out of the two roles. They agreed it was the right choice. I faced three or four balls, hit two and missed the rest. The coach said, ‘That’s it. Thank you for coming,'” the book says. Rashid was rejected.Interestingly, both of them later switched to coach Rashid. And by the way, according to the latest ICC rankings update, the handballer from Nangarhar province is also ranked as the 7th all-rounder in the world in ODIs and 14th in T20Is. That’s because the world’s leading white-ball player has a rare gift of hitting the big time instantly, winning games for both country (Afghanistan) and clubs around the world, including the IPL’s Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans.IPL addicts would remember how Rashid’s six-hitting tandem with David Miller pulled off a sensational heist against CSK in April 2022. The cricketer recalls the excitement when he got a message from coach Ashish Nehra to be GT’s stand-in captain in place of the injured Hardik Pandya.“Khan sahib, get ready. You will captain the team tomorrow. Pandya can’t play,” the message read. “I couldn’t sleep that night,” Rashid recalls. “Not because I was nervous about the captaincy, but because I couldn’t believe it was happening. An Afghan player would go to the toss in the IPL against Chennai! I kept thinking: people will remember the name of Afghanistan in a different way,” he says in the book, which was originally published in Pashto as ‘Rashid, Khan of Cricket’.On that day, Rashid made history as the first Afghan to captain and win a match in the IPL. “Millions of viewers across India and beyond saw an exciting match and a new image of Afghanistan led by Rashid’s calm and smart leadership. It became a moment of national pride for Afghans everywhere,” writes Haand.
