How the 4 Afghanistan players could light up the IPL 

Rashid Khan:

Rashid, as we all know, is the No. 1 T20I bowler in the world. He showed his maturity in the recently concluded ICC World Cup qualifying tournament where he came back strong after a poor start to the tournament and helped us lift the Cup in the end with some impressive performances in the final few matches.

Being the No. 1 bowler in the world and with all the success he has achieved, people expect him to pick up wickets every game. If his wicket column is 0, people begin questioning his talent, much the same way Indian fans questioned Sachin Tendulkar when he failed to score runs in the 1990s. He is becoming smarter at handling the huge expectations put on him.

He keeps his game very simple. Over the years, we have seen great seamers like Glenn Mcgrath who was known to put the ball in one spot; similarly, Rashid is able to do much of the same. By constantly bowling around the same spot and troubling the batsmen with his variations, one can see the consistency in his bowling.

He’s been working on the pace of his deliveries, which was something we noticed towards the latter end of the WCQ. He was trying to slow things down a bit and this could be something interesting to look out for in the IPL. He has made such a big name for himself that batsmen across the world will start coming up with special plans on how to tackle his bowling and we will have to see how he responds if he’s hit for a few big ones.

Phase wise, SRH will look to do what they have been doing for a long time, that is, allow Rashid to bowl one over in the powerplay, a couple of overs in the middle and then one over towards the end of the innings. He is an attacking bowler for them and is surely one of the contenders to win the Purple Cap this season.

Interestingly, he has surprised people with his batting too as he has been able to pack a punch with his right hand. However, the IPL has the most recognised players in the world, especially in SRH, hence, I'm not sure how many times he would get to bat. I won't be surprised if out of 14 games, we get to witness his batting ability in one or two of those games.