Rashid Khan head and shoulders above his contemporaries in 2017

Afghanistan bowler Rashid Khan has come of age this year. He was tipped as a fine young bowler but wasn’t exposed to top-flight cricket hence there were doubts about his effectiveness against top ranked teams. All doubts were doused as he was acquired by Sunrisers Hyderabad to play the IPL and impressed everyone with his skill on the big stage.

Rashid takes IPL by storm

He made headlines for attracting a lot of bids and eventually was sold for a whopping amount of Rs 4 crore. He won his first Man of the Match in only his second game of the tournament returning with a three-wicket haul. His scalps included top players: Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, and Aaron Finch – all proven T20 players.

Rashid also has had a great time in international cricket. He is, by a fair distance, the highest wicket taker in both ODIs and T20s this year. In 13 ODIs, the leg-spinner has claimed 36 scalps at 10.11 with 2 five-wicket hauls while in T20s, Rashid has 17 sticks from 10 games at 9.41 which include a famous spell of 5/3 off just 2 overs against Ireland.

The combined tally of Rashid is 53 wickets from just 23 limited overs matches which are 20 wickets clear of the second best – Imran Tahir – who has 33 wickets from 20 white-ball games this year for South Africa.

Rashid’s bolt for the West Indies

Rashid made history for Afghanistan when he helped his side beat West Indies in their first tour to the Caribbean as he spun a web around the home side to bamboozle them in a match-winning spell of 7/18. The 18-year old has a lot of variety and uses his well-disguised googly to good effect to befuddle opposition batsmen. In 29 games so far, the right-arm bowler has 63 ODI wickets at an unbelievable average of 14.74.