Why Did Rashid Khan Perform Poorly in the India Test?

Afghanistan leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, has been quite a sensation in the shorter formats of the game. His ability to turn the ball both ways at pace has made life difficult for the opposition batsmen. Not many have been able to play him freely.

Rashid’s extra pace makes it just a bit more difficult for the batsmen to adjust to the pace. He can turn the ball away from both right-handed and left-handed batsman. Hence he is a big force in the shorter formats.

Rashid bowls them quick

In case of the leg-spinners, a batsman tries to follow his hand very closely, and pick whether he is bowling the leg-spin or the wrong one. From 22 yards, it is more or less visible whether the bowler is showing his back of the hand or nat.

Hence, the batsman can adjust accordingly and play to the merit of the ball. However, in Rashid’s case, it’s not quite the same. You can see the back of the hand even when Rashid bowls the leg-spin. Thus it makes it a little more difficult for the batsmen to pick him, especially in the shorter formats.

The only visible difference might be the split-finger grip and the joined fingers grip. However, at the pace, it’s not quite possible for the batsmen to read which ball is coming from his hand. Therefore, hittable balls on occasions go for singles on occasions.

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Why didn’t Rashid’s methods work in the Test match?

Test cricket is all about endurance. Patience is the key to success in the longest format. To be successful, a bowler tries bowling his stock deliveries more often than not.

He mixes it up only occasionally. However, in the T20I format, it’s important for a bowler to make the batsmen guessing all the time. Hence Rashid went by his instincts and bowled quite a few variations in the 1^st session of their debut Test against India.

His ploy of experimenting didn’t quite work, and he was taken apart by Shikhar Dhawan. There was a time when Rashid conceded runs at more than seven per over. In Test cricket, the fields are not spread out unlike shorter formats of the game. Hence, a loose delivery or a short of length delivery can easily get dispatched to the boundary. Rashid kept bowling the googlies and didn’t rely on his leg-spin.

It was well into the final session that Rashid Khan was bowling leg-spins on a consistent basis. He bowled well and bagged his maiden Test wicket in the form of Ajinkya Rahane. He would have got Cheteshwar Pujara as well. However, Pujara got dropped at the slip cordon.

Lack of first-class matches 

Rashid will evolve as he plays more and more four day and five-day games. But, at this point in time, he needs a lot of hard work to make his name in Tests. What Rashid felt bowled wasn’t ideal for Test cricket?

However, you got to know that Rashid is a quick learner when he bowled quite a few traditional leg-spins in the final session. On the helpful track, he will be a might inclusion across formats, but for now, he has to concentrate on how he plans in the longer formats.

Another significant disadvantage for the players from Afghanistan is the lack of playing four-day cricket or first-class cricket. In top cricketing countries, you usually see a player going on to play at least 40-50 first-class games before making their national debut.

However, it wasn’t quite the case with Rashid and co. They have minimal experience of playing the longer formats and only time will tell whether they will be able to cope with the challenges of Test cricket.

The Test against India was Rashid’s 5^th first-class game, and the lack of experience showed in his performance. He has to bring in a different strategy into his game, and for that, he might slow down a bit on his pace in Tests.

However, there have been players like Anil Kumble who had been successful without spinning the ball much and relying on pace and accuracy. Only time will tell whether Rashid Khan will manage to emulate his idol.

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