Rashid Khan takes wickets against smaller teams and not big rivals: Varun Aaron

In white-ball cricket, Rashid Khan is among the world's top spinners. In international cricket, he has been winning games for Afghanistan. Rashid was a major contributor to his team's 2023 ODI World Cup victory and 2024 T20 World Cup semifinal appearance. There are only a few batters who have consistently outperformed Rashid. He did not, however, play at his best in the opening ICC Champions Trophy 2025 encounter.

Varun Aaron, a former player for India, said something unexpected about the seasoned spinner. According to him, Rashid performs well against lesser teams and is ineffective in the fifty-over format when facing formidable opponents.

“Rashid Khan takes wickets against smaller teams and not big rivals in one-day internationals. He plays in different T20 leagues worldwide, and the star players know about his bowling and doesn’t give him their wickets,” he said on Sports18. 

In 113 games, Rashid has claimed 199 ODI wickets at an average of almost 20. At an economy of 4.21, he has given up runs. In the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 game where Afghanistan are playing against England, Rashid Khan sent Ben Duckett for just 38 runs. It should be noted that Ducket had played an extraordinary innings of 165 runs in the last game vs Australia.

Piyush Chawla was taken aback by Varun’s opinion and didn’t say much. “You are saying that a big margin of his ODI wickets has come against associate nations,” he said.