IPL 2026: When Rashid Khan was rejected at Afghanistan U-19 trials

NEW DELHI: Rashid Khan is the world’s number one bowler in both T20 and ODIs today, as per the ICC’s latest rankings. But the spin sorcerer from Afghanistan — also a crowd-pulling megastar across the cricket world — was rejected at an under-19 national selection trial, says a new biography. It was the summer of 2016, and despite the punishing sun, the teenager had lined up along with thousands of hopefuls from the strife-torn country’s different parts at the Ghazi Amanullah Khan stadium, about 15 kilometres from Jalalabad town in eastern Afghanistan.

Dawlat Ahmadzai and Abdul Wali Amin, two reputed ex-cricketers who were coaches for the Afghanistan Cricket Board, were assigned with the talent spotting task, says the farm-fresh book, ‘Rashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom,’ written by Jafar Haand.

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The wait was long and Rashid, witnessing an open trial for the first time, was eager to showcase his wares. The book vividly recounts what exactly transpired.

One of the coaches asked him if he was a batsman or a bowler. Rashid answered that he was an allrounder. But the youngster was told that he could choose only one of the two slots: bowler or batter.

Forced to make a pick, Rashid turned for advice to the friends accompanying him. “I spoke with my friends and chose batting as a preferred option out of the two roles. They agreed that 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 had been rejected.

Interestingly, both of them would later go on to coach Rashid. And incidentally, as per ICC ranking’s current update, the leg break and googly bowler from Nangarhar province is also rated as the world’s No. 7 allrounder in ODIs and No. 14 in T20Is. That’s because the world’s foremost white-ball bowler has the rare gift of getting into instant big-hitting stride and winning games for both country (Afghanistan) and clubs worldwide, including IPL’s Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans.

IPL addicts would recall how Rashid’s six-hitting, in tandem with David Miller, pulled off a sensational heist against CSK in April, 2022. The cricketer recalls the excitement when he received a message from coach Ashish Nehra to be the stand-in skipper for GT in place of the injured Hardik Pandya.

“Khan sahib, get ready. You will captain the team tomorrow. Pandya cannot play,” the message said. “That night, I couldn’t sleep,” Rashid recalls. “Not because I was nervous to captain, but because I couldn’t believe it was happening. An Afghan player would go for the toss in the IPL against Chennai! I kept thinking: people will remember Afghanistan’s name in a different way,” he says in the book, originally published in Pashto as ‘Rashid, Khan of Cricket’.