Rashid Khan

Picture Credit: Twitter

6 wickets already in the tournament, including a four-for and now, 100 T20 international scalps; you may stop an avalanche or a flood if you are well prepared.

But there’s no stopping Rashid Khan the way this bright young career is unfolding.

Afghanistan’s star, world cricket’s precocious talent, and a perpetual antithesis to scoring rates, Rashid Khan is in another league as we speak.

Last evening, Pakistan learned it, as did the rest of the cricket-frenzied world- with a sense of palpability that was hard to ignore. Babar’s army of inspired men did win in the end, but that was not before running into a thorn in their way, one that goes by the name of Rashid Khan Arman.

The googly-specialist disturbed the timber of Pakistan captain Babar Azam and also got Hafeez in the end.

His Afghanistan team might have ended up on the wrong side of the result, but there was nothing wrong in the way Rashid, among the most dangerous spinners in world cricket, bowled.

With a promising, if not game changing, spell of 2 for 26, Afghanistan’s finest spinner was on a roll even as Pakistan proved to be the road roller in the ebullient Afghan side’s way.

Regardless of the result, however, Rashid Khan placed himself on an elite list; reaching 100 T20I dismissals faster than anyone. There are others who scaled the milestone before Rashid, such as Lasith Malinga, Tim Southee, Shakib al Hasan but none faster than Afghanistan’s national treasure.

One look at how efficiently and quickly the right-hand spinner achieved the feat and you understand the incredibility of the feat.

It took the leg break bowler no more than fifty-three (53) outings with the ball to hit a century of wickets.

Interestingly, from the little that Afghanistan have played in the T20 World Cup, it does appear that a lot of savagery lies ahead for one of cricket’s most clever bowlers.

To support what may seem a huge claim, Rashid Khan has already taken three wickets on average every contest, beginning his campaign against Scotland with a morale-crushing 4-for. What was emphatic as Afghanistan registered a 130-run victory over the Scottish was that Mujeeb ur-Rahman collected a fifer in the contest.

The duo, in the end, dismantled a clueless batting order that just didn’t know what to gather after Afghanistan set the Kyle Coetzer-led team an imposing 191 to win.

What will be followed with wide interest now is the remainder of Afghanistan’s games, the team having played only a couple of contests with big matches against India and New Zealand yet to occur.

We are set to see enticing battles between the likes of him and Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson in the upcoming games. Can the batters find a way past one of the great nadirs for modern day cricket where the supremacy of the white-ball is concerned?