The greats conduct themselves a touch differently than the rest. They never give up. They sense the enormity of the competition, and yet, remain unbothered or undone by pressure. In fact, they are the ones that keep piling on the pressure over their aggressors or as one would put it, challengers. The greats never bow down to histrionics and leaving ever so little in the way of the shenanigans, they find the best possible and consistent ways in which to combine pure skill and experience to come right on top of their opponents. And truth be told, in the glitzy and glamorous world of the famed Indian Premier League, the most famed and checkered franchise based T20 league that there is in the world, we have a great in the form of Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan. In some ways there is no sense of irony that a titan of white ball cricket is, in fact, part of the Gujarat Titans side.

Thanks to his incessant talent at coming hard at the best of the batters that there are in the Indian Premier League, whether it is Suryakumar Yadav or Virat Kohli, KL Rahul or Nicholas Pooran, Donovan Ferreira, MS Dhoni, Kieron Pollard (as seen back in the day), or Phil Salt, to quote some of the few, Khan excites and trumps the best operating in the business. He has done that time and again in the highest annals of the Indian Premier League and he has even added a sense of timelessness to it all. Hasn’t he?  

But the big bright praise notwithstanding, here’s also a fact! 

And it quite simply points to the direction that even a great like Rashid Khan has had his off days in India’s beloved T20 competition. Look no further than what happened with him the last season or in the previous edition.

Back in 2025, all that Rashid Khan could manage were 9 wickets and that too, from 15 games. 

And what happened a season before that one? Well, to put it mildly, things weren’t all that bright and appeared rather lacklustre. He took 10 wickets despite competing in 12 games.

Which perhaps explains why Rashid Khan’s verdict of his own self this time around is a much brighter version of things. 

_“It was unusual for me in the last two seasons. This year I’ve been more consistent and so I’m Happy with that!” _

Perhaps and unfailingly so, Khan was pointing to the very fact that this time around he has been very consistent with his line and lengths and has appeared considerably more happy with the work put in.

While he took 10 wickets in 2024, think about it for a second, he ended up taking nearly a half of his 2024 wicket tally last evening against RR itself when on his own, Rashid Khan removed 4 wickets.

This far, he has already taken around 14 wickets and counting with some more games left ahead. So if that’s not improvement, then what is?