Khan to strut stuff on cricket’s biggest stage

New Delhi – He’s 19 and from a country at war for decades, but Rashid Khan (right) of Afghanistan is the toast of the cricket world with his leg-spin wizardry.

From Thursday, the world’s top-ranked Twenty20 bowler will be in action as Afghanistan play their first ever Test match, against the mighty India in Bangalore.

Khan started playing with a tennis ball in the remote and poor eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar as one of 12 children, and says he learned the tricks of the trade by himself.

“Nobody taught me leg-spin and wrong ones,” he told the Times of India recently. “I just observed Shahid Afridi and Anil Kumble,” he said of the greats of Pakistan and India respectively.

Khan began his professional career in Afghanistan’s domestic league where he caught the eye of the national selectors.

At 17 he made his international debut against Zimbabwe.

Since then he has gone from strength to strength, becoming the fastest to reach 100 one-day international wickets during the World Cup qualifiers in March with his darting leg-spinners and vicious googlies.

This year he was the star of the Indian Premier League, the cashrich extravaganza in short-format Twenty20 cricket, helping the Sunrisers Hyderabad to reach the final and more than justifying his $1.41-million price tag.

Khan’s well-disguised “doosra” did for stars from Virat Kohli, the India captain, to batting maestro Mahendra Singh Dhoni, helping to propel the youngster to the top of the International Cricket Council’s T20 bowling rankings.

“I wouldn’t hesitate in saying he is the best spinner in the world in this format ... and he’s got some batting skills as well,” Indian su- perstar Sachin Tendulkar said on Twitter.

Australian spin legend Shane Warne said Khan got him “excited”, while Kumble was also full of praise for the 19-year-old and his 17-year-old team-mate Mujeeb ur Rahman.

“It’s fantastic to see two young Afghanistan spinners bamboozle world batsmen,” Kumble, the third-highest wicket-taker of all time, told AFP.

“Both Rashid and Mujeeb are extremely talented and if they get it right they are capable of testing Indian or any batsmen,” the former leg-spinner added. –