“Used to dream about these three players” – Rashid Khan reveals his childhood heroes

“Used to dream about these three players” – Rashid Khan reveals his childhood heroes

Rashid Khan

Ace Afghan spinner Rashid Khan recently talked about his childhood heroes during the times when Afghanistan was nowhere on the cricketing map. The 23-year-old mentioned that Sachin Tendulkar, Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble are the three cricketers he looked up to during his early years. 

Rashid has picked up more than 600 wickets with 15 five-wicket hauls across formats all over the world. He is also a handy power-hitting lower-order batter in limited-overs cricket. However, the right-hander stated that during the days when he used to watch Tendulkar, he shifted from being a grafter to a power-hitter.

“Batting-wise, I always loved watching Sachin Tendulkar. [Back then] I wasn’t the kind of player with a mindset of hitting sixes. I loved playing down the ground, singles, boundaries. I don’t know how and why I changed my mind to now mainly focusing on hitting sixes,” Rashid told Cricket Monthly.

“Still watch videos of Afridi, Kumble on YouTube” – Rashid

Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble
Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble

Rashid further went on to say that he watches YouTube videos of Afridi and Kumble as the duo also used to be quick through the air. Notably, Rashid is also a bowler, who prefers beating the batters with pace and doesn’t believe in flighting the ball a lot.

“[Bowling-wise], definitely Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble. Even at home, playing against my brothers, I was bowling quicker leg-spin [like Afridi and Kumble]. I loved watching them on TV. I still watch videos [of them] on YouTube – there are so many things I learned from them and still do.

“I used to dream about these three players and imagine being them. We didn’t have a proper Afghanistan team back then and there were no hopes for us to be international cricketers, so watching them was great. And now when I meet them, it is more than a dream,” he added.

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