Rashid Khan Has Got the Mind of a 30-year-old: Phil Simmons

Afghanistan’s Head Coach, Phil Simmons, reckons Rashid Khan has a “30-year-old mind in a 19-year-old body”. Rashid, who made a name for himself in the Twenty20 fold, is all set to feature in the whites for his nation, against India at Bengaluru.

On the other side, he inexperience of the Afghan teenage sensation in the red-ball cricket might witness him springing a surprise or so, even having only a handful of four-day games behind him.

Well, the other potent weapon in the Afghanistan squad is 17-year old Mujeeb Zadran. Like Rashid, much is expected out of the teenager in the upcoming Test match which will be beginning from June 14.

“Rashid is all of 19 but he has got the mind of a 30-year-old. He knows exactly what is expected of him. But yes, Mujeeb (17 years) is younger but we will have to see how he copes up with it,” Simmons quoted according to Times of India.

Simmons also shed light on Rashid’s limited opportunities in the four-day cricket.

“It is about them (Rashid and Mujeeb) showing patience too along with our batsmen. Rashid did well against Ireland in four-day cricket last year. He got wickets. He played against practice games against England and he got wickets,” suggested coach Lendl Simmons.

Afghanistan is coming off a successful tournament winning campaign at the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifiers.

Simmons believed it is tedious journey to prepare players for two different formats at the same time.

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The biggest challenge is to make them understand what Test cricket is all about, maintains Simmons

“It has been difficult with the T20 and Test squads training at the same time. But it is getting a bit easier as we are coming up to the game. That is how tours are planned now,” added the Windies.

Further, the Trinidadian Phil Simmons mentioned that it would be a different ball game altogether for his players, coming from the four-day cricket.

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“The biggest challenge is to make them understand what Test cricket is all about. It is different to four-day cricket in a massive way. It is getting them to understand the mindset around Test cricket, the patience, how hard it is to score runs,” concluded Simmons.