Rashid Khan, the 25-year-old star all-rounder of the Afghanistan national cricket team, has decided to take a long break from Test cricket and will not be seen representing his nation in the purest format of cricket anytime soon.
Rashid Khan is undoubtedly the best cricketer to emerge from Afghanistan and has taken the cricket world by storm since he began his career in 2015.
The leg-spinner has continued to evolve over the years and yet batsmen are finding it extremely difficult to take on him. Moreover, Rashid has improved his batting a lot and is now considered a true all-rounder, especially in T20 cricket.
Rashid has had huge success in white-ball cricket for Afghanistan, having played 103 ODIs and 93 T20Is, taking 183 and 152 wickets respectively. However, he has not played many Test matches, as Afghanistan does not have many red-ball matches.
So far, the Afghans have played just 9 Test matches in international cricket and Rashid has been a part of 5 of them. The 25-year-old has bowled 1534 deliveries and while he has conceded 760 runs, he has picked up 34 Test wickets at an average of 22.35, an economy of 2.97 and a strike rate of 45.1.
He was last seen in action in Test cricket in March 2021. In the match against Zimbabwe, he took 4 wickets in the first innings for 138 runs and in the second innings, he took 7 wickets for 137 runs at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Since then, he has been out of action in this format and got a chance to feature in red-ball cricket against the New Zealand National Cricket Team in September when the Afghans and the Kiwis will lock horns in a one-off Test match starting from September 9 at the Greater Noida Sports Complex. However, Rashid Khan will miss the encounter.
Lower back injury has been troubling him for a while: Rashid Khan takes 1-year break from Test cricket
On Thursday, August 29, an Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) official confirmed that the star leg-spinner has been facing a lot of problems due to his lower back injury, which led him to take the important decision of taking a break from Test cricket for a year.
“The lower back injury has been bothering him for a while now. He has decided to take a break from Test cricket for a year,” an Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) official told The Indian Express.
Rashid Khan was not picked by the Afghanistan Cricket Board in the preliminary 20-member squad to face New Zealand in a one-off Test due to the back injury he sustained while playing for Speen Ghar Tigers (SGT) in the Shpageeza Cricket League (SCL), which is Afghanistan’s domestic T20 tournament, last month, ESPNCricinfo reported.
Back injuries are nothing new for Rashid Khan as he underwent surgery for the same in October-November last year after the 2023 ODI World Cup. He also recently suffered a hamstring injury in The Hundred.
Meanwhile, the players of Afghanistan national cricket team without Rashid Khan arrived in Greater Noida on Wednesday and will undergo a week-long preparatory camp ahead of the match against New Zealand.