To pick, says Nabi
Mohammad Nabi pumped his fists in celebration, yelling out a cry from his seat in the Sunrisers Hyderabad dugout. It was for Afghanistan cricket.
His teammate Rashid Khan had taken a wicket in his very first over in the Indian Premier League and Nabi was ecstatic.
Selected in the Indian Premier League for the first time, pressure is on Nabi and Rashid Khan to prove that they belong to the big league and are worth the money spent on them by Sunrisers — the 18-year-old leg-spinner has a ₹4 crore tag to justify.
“We are here to prove that there is talent in Afghanistan. Rashid’s performance was important. It is a good start,” Nabi told HT.
Rashid was the toast of the Afghanistan cricket fraternity on Wednesday when he picked two big wickets to derail the Bangalore Royal Challengers chase. He first got Mandeep Singh and then outfoxed Travis Head.
Senior pro Nabi revealed that the leg-spinner was informed on the match-day he was playing and naturally he was battling nerves “He already under pres has been picked for a big price,” admittednabi, who has established himself as Afghanistan’s top all-rounder.
It was a belter of a wicket. Rashid had no room for error. “He was nervous, the stadium was packed and there were such big names around, also the wicket was flat. I told him if he errs on this wicket ‘bahut maar padegi’. ‘Just bowl with a big heart’,” said Nabi. “He will build on this start.”
Now the teams will earmark him as the dangerman and go about analysing him. But, Nabi is confident: “No amount of study will help the batsmen. His hand comes down very fast, the teams will be watching on slow motion by the time they map his