NEW DELHI: Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan etched his name into cricket history on Monday, becoming the first bowler to take 700 wickets in men’s T20 cricket. The landmark came during Afghanistan’s 2026 T20 World Cup match against the UAE at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where his lone wicket in the match helped him reach the milestone on Monday.
Asking UAE to bowl first in Delhi, Afghanistan restricted them to 160/9 in 20 overs. Rashid is already the highest wicket-taker in T20 Internationals, which confirms his status as one of the most dangerous spinners in the game.However, the record comes at a time when Afghanistan are dealing with emotional setbacks in the tournament. Their dramatic double Super Over loss to South Africa still weighs heavily on the team. Ahead of the UAE match, Rashid admitted the defeat had been hard to digest, saying, “It is quite heartbreaking. Last one and a half years, we worked very hard… keeping our hopes of going deep in the T20 World Cup in mind, but sometimes it doesn’t go your way. The most important thing is the mindset we played with and the effort we put during our first two games.”Despite the disappointment, Rashid believes there are lessons to be learned. “It’s going to help us. It’s not only the upcoming games, but the upcoming cricket we have. So, there are lots of positives we can take from those two games,” he said.Rashid also spoke about how painful defeats tend to linger, recalling Afghanistan’s loss to Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup. “It’s very hard to lose a game that we have in our hands, like a couple of times, and then it just slips out of your hand. It doesn’t go away from your mind,” he said, adding that revenge in the 2024 T20 World Cup helped erase that memory.He also highlighted a bigger issue for Afghanistan—lack of regular matches against top teams. “As a team, if you don’t get a chance to play against a big team regularly, that’s what happens,” Rashid said, stressing that limited exposure makes World Cup matches extremely high-pressure.
