Rashid Khan has been a valuable buy for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who fetched the youngster for a whopping INR 4 crores in IPL 2017 auction. Since then, he has taken 55 wickets in 46 matches and has played some handy cameos with the bat as well.
Former SRH coach Tom Moody revealed that within the first 20 minutes of Rashid Khan’s first net session with the franchise, they knew a special talent had arrived for the team. He also revealed that the need for a variety of bowling options led to them bidding aggressively for the Afghanistan leggie.
"[During] The very first net session in the camp before the first season he played, there were a few question marks about whether a kid from nowhere can suddenly step up and command the attention he did in the auction and then deliver on the big stage,” Moody said to Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz in Conversation.
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"I got a couple of our senior players including David Warner to face him and within 20 minutes I realized we picked a gem. His level of competitiveness in that net scenario was to me 'right this kid is ready to go'. He is not worried about who he is bowling to. He is delivering so consistently.”
“No one understood what he was doing, couldn't work out which way he was turning it. He ticked every box in that first training session. He went from strength to strength because once you get the trust from your own environment, it's a very powerful thing. He had that in 20 minutes,” Moody added.
Talking about the need for picking a leg-spinner, Tom Moody explained that the franchise was looking for variety in bowling.
“I spoke to the [SRH] analyst - told him to look domestically and look internationally and try to find a number of options for us to explore. Then I saw Rashid bowl. I told him, keep sending videos of [Rashid], I need to have an understanding of what this guy is doing. Clearly no one does, especially those holding the bat,” Moody said.
Moody is credited with building one of the best bowling attacks in IPL history, which has defended very low totals with ease.
"We just felt that the bench strength was important, with regards to bowling. We wanted to have a number of options at hand that we can work with. The obvious, high profile Indian bowlers were often taken and locked down in various franchises so we felt if we had a number of next rung bowlers, who were about to announce themselves, as possible targets,” the two-time World Cup winner said.
"I always had a philosophy around that if you can own your 120 balls in the field - that is, have a good fielding unit plus have those 120 balls well managed with a diverse attack and flexibility [then], I believe you can create an enormous amount of pressure on your opponent. The difference between a quality death bowler and a quality finisher is that there are fewer quality finishers with the ball than with the bat out there,” he signed off.
