Picture Credit: Twitter
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has revealed that star Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan is worried about the situation back at home and is not able to get his family out of the country after the flight operations have been impacted owing to the turmoil in the country. The youngster is currently in the United Kingdom playing for Trent Rockets in the inaugural edition of The Hundred.
Pietersen said that he had a long conversation with Rashid and that is when he came to know about his state of mind. He made the revelation on air for a broadcast network.
"There’s a lot of things that are happening at home. We had a long chat here on the boundary talking about it and he’s worried: he can’t get his family out of Afghanistan and there’s a lot of things happening for him," Pietersen said on Sky Sports.
"For him to turn up and put on a performance like this under the pressure that he is currently under...for him to be able to forget that stuff and navigate his story and continue the momentum that he has — I think that’s probably one of the most heart-warming stories of this Hundred so far," he added.
Notably, commercial flight operations from around the world have been closed at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul owing to the ongoing crisis. Moreover, no flight can even fly over the Afghan airspace since the Taliban took over the country on Sunday. In addition, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has resigned and left the country.
Earlier on Monday, Rashid had posted an Instagram story of an Afghanistan flag, a praying emoji as well as two sad faces with the text "can't sleep" at the end. The 22-year-old has not shied away from taking a stance against the worsening crisis in the country on his social media.
Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Cricket Board CEO Hamid Shinwari had assured that the sport of cricket should not suffer after the massive political change in the country. He outlined how the Taliban "love" and "support" the game and would not be too bothered about cricketing activities.