Nabi's presence at Sunrisers camp will definitely help: Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan, who is just 18 years old, bagged a huge deal with the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the IPL 2017 Auction. He was one of the two Afghanistan players who managed to get a contract from an IPL team. While Mohammad Nabi was one who was snapped up by the Hyderabad-based franchise with little or no fight, it was the signature of Rashid for which Sunrisers had to get into a bid war against the Mumbai Indians.

Rashid is currently touring Zimbabwe with the national team and was elated after learning about the signing. In an exclusive conversation with CricTracker, the young leggie spoke at length about how things went underway on the auction day for him. He also expressed his plans for the tournament starting in April. He recalled the moment and said that it was early morning in Zimbabwe when the auctions were taking place. He was sleeping and it was a phone call from his parents that woke him up.

He was very nervous but when he saw the bidding, he started feeling very good. His primary wish was to get picked up for his base price at least. However, seeing the bids go up, he was absolutely delighted. He admitted that he certainly did not expect a price as high as INR 4 crore to be bid for him. Somewhere close to INR 50 lakh to INR 1 crore is what he had expected. He thanked god for the good wishes bestowed on him.

On a lighter note, he was asked about how many marriage proposals has he received ever since becoming an overnight sensation. Rashid shyly said that this is just the beginning and he is not thinking about marriage as of now. Being modest the leggie then said that his only long-standing wish was to play for Afghanistan and represent his nation in different leagues. He wished to play for the T20 leagues like the IPL, PSL and the Big Bash.

Also read- We don’t care if an Afghan player gets millions in IPL: Javed Miandad

He accepted the fact that the presence of Mohammad Nabi in the same dugout at Sunrisers Hyderabad will be a great support system for him. He noted how Nabi has always been helping him in the nets and practice sessions. Speaking about his plans to counter the batsmen in IPL, he said that getting the basics right is all that a bowler needs to do in a tournament such as the IPL.

Lastly, he remarked that he has travelled to India before since Greater Noida is the home ground for the Afghanistan national side. Hence, visiting Taj Mahal is already ticked off on his bucket list. However, he did mention that he would love to have the Hyderabadi Biryani when he visits Hyderabad.

Listen to Rashid Khan speaking in an exclusive conversation with Abbas Haider: