World’s No.1 T20I bowler Rashid Khan is one of the most popular overseas stars in India, thanks to his Sunrisers Hyderabad stint in the Indian Premier League over the past few years.

Apart from IPL, Afghanistan captain has been playing in a plethora of T20 leagues around the world, including Big Bash League in Australia, Caribbean Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League, and also England’s T20 Blast to made his name in the cricket world.  

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The star leg-spinner has been the most-sought bowler in the world of T20 leagues across the globe being undeniably one of the toughest bowlers to face currently with his devious variations and magical deceptions, which are very tough to read and get a hold of for the batters.

Having played in various T20 leagues around the globe, Rashid, who has played 211 T20 and has 296 scalps to his name so far, got the opportunity to face many batting greats in his career, but there is one batsman whom he found tough to bowl.

Recently, Rashid had a conversation with Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on Instagram, where the Afghan-born leggie has named India wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant as a very tough batsman to bowl to, saying the Delhi lad is a very talented batsman.

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During the Instagram live session, Rashid also recalled their U-19 days and how Pant used to confuse the Afghanistan bowlers during an Under-19 tri-series in 2015 at the Jadavpur University second campus ground in Kolkata ahead of the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016.

Rashid told Chahal, “He hit three sixes in a row and in the fourth ball, he mistimed but only to be dropped at short midwicket. Our bowler looked helpless and put his hands on his head, yelling in Pashto, ‘now what do I do get him out?’ He has every shot in the book and is one batsman who is very tough to bowl to. I remember bowling to him at a ground in Kolkata in the U-19 Tri-series.”

The 21-year-old, who is known for his big-spinning googly, said bowling to the Caribbean hard-hitters is a very tough job and if you want to tackle them smartly, you must confuse them.

He added, “Never pitch the ball up; they would clear boundaries with ease. It’s about playing them on the backfoot and confuse them with the wrong one and leg-spin. I always try to mix it up.”

Rashid also revealed that he never enjoyed bowling at the small grounds like M Chinnaswamy Stadium. He signed off by saying, “When I come to Bangalore, I have so many things in my mind. Hopefully, I get a spin-friendly wicket (as the ground is small). It’s difficult for me to bowl in Bangalore.”

Chahal and Rashid also named their combined India-Afghanistan ODI XI during the session.

Here’s XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rahmat Shah, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya/Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan/Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

(With Hindustan Times Inputs)