Senior Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan hinted that he could skip the one-off Test against India in June. Speaking at an IPL press conference after his Player of the Match performance for the Gujarat Titans against the Delhi Capitals on Thursday (April 9), Rashid said he wants to ‘take it easy’ amid his long-standing back injury troubles, and especially with his doctor advising him to ‘stay away’ from red-ball cricket.
Rashid suffered from back issues in 2023 but delayed a much-needed surgery to represent Afghanistan in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Immediately after the tournament, he went under the knife, which ruled him out of all competitive cricket for months, alongside a few recurrences that caused short delays. His performances have been naturally
affected by it, though he looked at his best, taking 3/17 against the Capitals.
He spoke quite vulnerably about the recovery, the fear of getting injured again, and how it’s all too complicated because of how much he loves representing Afghanistan.
“Red-ball cricket is a bit difficult,” he said at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. “I was told by my doctor to stay away from it. Still, after my surgery, I played a game against Zimbabwe and bowled 67 overs, which was crazy. The doctor told me, ‘If you don’t want to keep playing cricket, keep playing red-ball.’ But I love playing for Afghanistan. So I will think about that.”
“I enjoy white-ball cricket – ODIs and T20s – and I want to play those for Afghanistan for a long time. But I have to be careful about how many matches I play, not put too much load on myself. Red-ball cricket looks difficult for me. Maybe one test a year – I could take that. But more than that? I don’t think so. I’ll play if I have to bowl 20-25 overs, but if I bowl the whole day… In my last two Tests, I bowled 167 overs – that’s too much,” he added.
When asked directly if that one Test for 2026 could be the June game against India in New Chandigarh, Rashid said, “I think I already played one before (in 2018 in Bengaluru). I will just take it easy. Imagine something happens to my back in a Test match. But I can’t play 100 Test matches. If you play one Test a year, you can’t play for 100 years!”
Titans secured their first win of the campaign and now visit Lucknow to play the Super Giants on April 12.
