Rashid Khan claims Rishabh Pant is 'very tough to bowl to'; 'knows every shot in the book'

Afghanistan's spin wizard Rashid Khan heaped praise on southpaw Rishabh Pant, claiming that the swashbuckling youngster knew every shot in the book and was very difficult to bowl to. The former Afghanistan skipper revealed his first encounter with Rishabh Pant in a conversation with Yuzvendra Chahal on Instagram. Rishabh Pant, who was touted to be MS Dhoni's successor for Team India, hasn't enjoyed much success after a string of poor shows coupled with KL Rahul's phenomenal rise as India's man-for-all-seasons over the year after the World Cup. Apart from Rishabh Pant, the duo of Rashid and Chahal also spoke about the art of bowling and the Indian Premier League. 

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'He knows every shot in the book' 

Speaking to Chahal, Rashid Khan revealed that he had first locked horns with the left-handed batsman from Delhi in a U-19 tri-series in 2015 at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. Rashid's encounter with Pant came ahead of the U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016. Rashid Khan recounted the bowlers' nightmare in playing against Rishabh Pant, saying that it was very difficult to stop the swashbuckling southpaw once he gets going. 

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"He hit three sixes in a row and in the fourth ball, he mistimed but only to be dropped at short midwicket. Our bowler looked helpless and put his hands on his head, yelling in Pashto, 'now what do I do get him out?'," Khan recalled the incident in an Instagram chat with Indian legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

"He has every shot in the book and is one batsman who is very tough to bowl to. I remember bowling to him at a ground in Kolkata in the U-19 Triseries," Rashid said.

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'Never pitch the ball up'

Sharing the secret of his world-famous big-spinning googly, Rashid Khan told Chahal that the secret was to not pitch up the ball and ensure that the batsmen play on the backfoot. this would then be followed by bowling a wrong one and mixing the deliveries up in order to confuse the batsmen. Rashid Khan revealed that he did not like bowling at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru owing to its batsman-friendly nature. The two spinners put together an India-Afghanistan Team XI which consisted of contemporary greats from both sides. 

The XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rahmat Shah, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya/Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan/Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

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