Rashid Khan has his eyes on T20 World Cup, not marriage

Nonetheless, Rashid informed AFP that hypothesis over his non-public life within the run-up to the event, at the moment underway in Oman and the UAE, is not going to derail his ambitions.

He denied he ever mentioned: “I’ll marry when Afghanistan win a World Cup.”

“Really, I used to be so shocked after I heard this as a result of, to be sincere, I by no means made an announcement that I’ll marry as soon as I win the World Cup,” mentioned Rashid, whose household lives in Nangarhar within the jap a part of Afghanistan.

“I simply mentioned that within the subsequent few years I’ve extra cricket and three World Cups (the 2021 and 2022 Twenty20 World Cups and the 50-over World Cup in 2023) so my focus will likely be on cricket somewhat than on getting married.”

Rashid, who made his Afghanistan debut when he was 17, is one in all worldwide cricket’s most in-demand gamers.

He has already performed 51 T20 worldwide matches and greater than 280 video games within the format for franchises around the globe.

A profitable profession has seen him ply his commerce in England, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and, after all, the IPL in India the place he has been a daily for Sunrisers Hyderabad since 2017.

He has 95 wickets in T20 internationals with a median of simply 12.63 and in 2020 was voted the ICC´s Cricketer of the Decade within the format.

On the low, sluggish wickets of the Gulf, spin will likely be key.

“I believe will probably be a spinners´ World Cup,” mentioned Rashid.

“The wickets listed below are largely superb for spinners, so I believe that is the primary motive many of the groups have extra spinners of their assault.”

India have packed 4 sluggish bowlers of their 15 with Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar whereas England have Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone.

Defending champions the West Indies have Akeal Hosein, Hayden Walsh and Roston Chase. Chris Gayle may flip his arm over.

Pakistan can name on Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Imad Wasim as frontline spinners. Veterans Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik may give the ball a tweak.

New Zealand have Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner and Todd Astle.

Australia, but to win a T20 World Cup, will look to Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar.

Rashid just isn’t Afghanistan´s solely entrance line spinner — there may be additionally Mujeeb Ur Rahman and skipper Mohammad Nabi.

“What I observed throughout the Indian Premier League (the conclusion of which was additionally performed within the UAE) was that wickets had been good however there was not that a lot spin,” mentioned Rashid.

“However I believe the extra we play on this World Cup we would see wickets that are a bit totally different and the extra you play on these tracks it turns into slower and slower and they are going to be helpful for spinners.”

Rashid refused to foretell any favourites for what’s the seventh version of the World Cup.

“Effectively it is T20 and anybody can beat anybody on the day,” mentioned Rashid, who stepped down from the captaincy forward of the occasion over not being consulted in squad choice.

“Now we have a combination of each skilled and younger gamers and most significantly it´s fairly balanced with a couple of all-rounders which makes the facet very balanced, particularly in T20 when you have got extra of that all-round choice.”

Afghanistan are in Group 2 of the World Cup with India, Pakistan, New Zealand and two qualifiers within the Tremendous 12 stage which begins on Saturday.