‘For me, both are tough to bowl to’- Rashid Khan on Virat Kohli and Babar Azam
The 15th edition of the Asia Cup is just around the corner. The tournament will kick-start with the hosts Sri Lanka locking horns with Afghanistan on August 27. The mega clash will take place on the second day of the event between India and Pakistan. The epic encounter will be held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The high-profile encounter will see the return of India’s veteran batter Virat Kohli, who had been rested for the side’s previous two limited-overs tours of the West Indies and Zimbabwe. The attention will also be on Pakistan’s skipper who is in a rich vein of form across formats.
In the build to the multi-nation tournament, Afghanistan ace-bowler Rashid Khan had a conversation with Pakistan journalist Sawera Pasha on her YouTube channel, where he answered some interesting questions.
During the conversation, Rashid stated that both Virat and Babar are quite equally difficult to bowl at as they don’t spare any loose delivery. The 23-year-old, further, added that bowling to batters like Kohli, Babar, and Kane Williamson has enabled him to raise his game over the years.
“For me, both (Virat and Babar) are equally tough to bowl. The type of batters they are, they won’t spare a lose delivery. So, for me, both are tough to bowl to, but I enjoy the challenge. There is no chance that I will bowl a loose ball to both of them. I will focus on bowling in the right areas but bought are tough to bowl at,” Rashid said.
“Bowling to Babar and Virat is fun and it has also been a great learning curve for me. For Example, when I used to bowl to Kane Williamson at SRH, we had a lot of chat afterwards about my bowling. So, his output helped me a lot. I also had discussions with Virat in IPL, and the same goes with Babar too,” he added.
The Men in Blue are the defending champions coming into the Asia Cup 2022 and would be looking to clinch their third successive title. India and Pakistan are placed in Group A along with Hong Kong. The second group consists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
