Afghanistan cricket star Rashid Khan lamented playing a Test match on his return from a long layoff and blamed it for taking a toll on his body. The ace spinner underwent a back surgery after the 2023 ODI World Cup following which he was on the sidelines for over six months. Rashid made his comeback in January 2025 in the Test against Zimbabwe but that took a toll on his body and in turn impacted his performance in the Champions Trophy and IPL 2025.
Rashid Khan laments rushing back to Test cricket after injury
In an interview with ESPN Cricinfo, Rashid explained that he been advised not to rush back to the longest format of the game after his surgery. However, he ended up bowling nearly 65 overs in the Test against Zimbabwe in January 2025, which he later realized was a mistake. Noting that he had to play against South Africa, and then CT 2025 followed by IPL 2025, Rashid said that he felt he had pushed his body ‘a little too much.’
“When i came back after surgery, I was told not to rush back to longer format that quickly, that isn’t going to be good for you. When I came after 8-9 months, I played Test cricket. I bowled 65 overs and that really pushed my back a little bit. I felt I shouldn’t have been in whites, I mean T20 is fine. At that time I didn’t realize but later on I felt that i made a mistake,” Rashid Khan said.
The Afghanistan spinner said that the only solution that he thought was appropriate was to take some time off and give his body some rest. Rashid was unlike his usual self in IPL 2025, managing to take just 9 wickets from 15 games while also being unusually expensive. He boasted of an economy rate of 9.34 in IPL 2025 against his career economy rate of 7.08.
In Champions Trophy, he only managed to feature in 3 matches where he picked just 1 wicket from 9 overs bowled in the entire tournament.
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