Rashid Khan: ‘I didn’t have the chance to celebrate with the family’

The best T20 bowler in the world, who has spent only 25 days at home in the last five years because of his busy schedule, is ready to star for Trent Rockets in the Hundred

Rashid Khan has just had his 108th Covid test of the pandemic. He’s sitting in his London hotel, quarantining on a diet of Indian movies and rounds of weights, this country the latest stop on the dizzying roundabout of the itinerant cricketer. He is here for the Hundred – he was the first pick of the men’s draft – and, via a couple of Blast games for Sussex, will join Trent Rockets for their first game next Saturday.

The sixth of 10 siblings, the best T20 bowler in the world learned his cricket as a refugee in the frontier city of Peshawar when his family fled across the Afghan border after the US invasion and the war with the Taliban. He played his first ODI for Afghanistan at the age of 17 and at 19 was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad, becoming the most expensive associate cricketer to play in the IPL. Since then, he has been a regular in franchise competitions round the world as well as playing 130 games for Afghanistan. He is now 22. From the outside, it seems brutally exhausting, but Rashid just loves playing and enthuses about the Hundred, despite the stresses of quarantine.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3evrtGK