I got David Warner to face Rashid Khan in SRH nets and I realized in 20 minutes that we had picked a gem: Tom Moody

Afghanistan star Rashid Khan was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2017 IPL auction for a sum of INR 4 crores. Since then, there has been no looking back for the leg-spinner as Rashid’s career has only notched higher with time.

The then head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Tom Moody recalled witnessing Rashid for the first time in his net session. It was at the very same moment when Moody was convinced that the Hyderabad franchise had unearthed a starlet.

Moody, while speaking to Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, revealed that he was interested in snapping up a wrist spinner or a wrist spinner who can bowl the doosra. After seeing Rashid’s videos of bowling, Moody asked the SRH analyst to keep sending more videos of the leg-spinner to inspect his bowling even more.

Keeping in mind Rashid’s pace and consistency of length, Moody felt that buying him it was worth a gamble. SRH’s move eventually paid off as the Afghan emerged as one of the best spinners in the world. Moody even recalled that Rashid ticked every box in his first training session while impressing everyone. Rashid finished that debut season in the IPL as the sixth-highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps in 14 matches.

“I was very keen on getting a wrist spinner. I knew that wrist spinners were clearly having an impact in the game. Bowlers that can spin the ball both ways – whether it’s a wrist spinner or the finger spinner who can bowl the doosra,” Moody said in a candid chat.

“[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,” he added.

Rashid ticked every box in that first training session: Tom Moody

“I got a couple of our senior players including David Warner to face him and within 20 minutes I realised 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 recalled.

Rashid was set to don the Sunrisers Hyderabad jersey in the thirteenth edition of the IPL. However, the tournament was indefinitely postponed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are reports that the BCCI is trying its best to host the billion-dollar league in the latter part of the year. Rashid’s journey in the IPL has been impressive as the leg-spinner has scalped 55 wickets in 46 matches with best figures of 3/19.