Back in rhythm, back in business for Rashid Khan

It was a night built for batting. Gujarat Titans' 210 seemed sub-par at the halfway mark, and was only just defended off the final ball. A 200 vs 200 game that typically renders bowlers ineffective. Yet Rashid Khan stood out - with figures of 3/17 and an economy of 4.25 - on a night every bowler around him was taken to the cleaners. In Delhi, under lights and scrutiny, Rashid beautifully turned back the clock with his miserly spell that stalled the Delhi Capitals' charge if not decisively tilting the game the Titans' way right away.

At first, it was some harmless non-verbal banter. In the fifth over of the Powerplay, KL Rahul was beaten on the outside edge by a ripping legbreak that spun away sharply. Rahul smiled, Rashid grinned. He didn't cause much trouble for Rahul thereafter, but wreaked plenty of havoc around him. For his first couple of overs, the DC batters were happy to turn over the strike. In his third, Rashid had Nitish Rana miscue a slog off a wrong 'un to long-on two balls after the batter had managed to get the LBW call reversed on an attempted sweep.

Then, on the last ball of the over, Rashid handed Delhi's most in-form batter a golden duck. Sameer Rizvi, the PoTM in DC's two wins until Wednesday, looked absolutely at sea against a ripping googly that spun back into the right-hander and snuck through the gate to rattle the stumps. Rashid's celebration spoke volumes about what that particular wicket meant to him. Bowled out by the 14th, Rashid capped off his game-turning spell with another big fish with a well thought-out plan. To the left-handed Axar Patel, off his last serving for the night, Rashid decided to go around the wicket. The googly turned away from the batter, who sliced it to extra cover.

Each of Rashid's three victims fell for single-digit scores. All three of them proven players of spin. Each of the three fell for the strategic googly they knew was coming. For the last two IPL editions, the question had lingered: Had the batters finally caught up with Rashid? In Delhi, at least, the answer was an emphatic 'not just yet'.

After a successful IPL 2023, Rashid went against medical advice and pushed through the pain to play the men's ODI World Cup. The chronic back issue flared up to the extent that he was unable to walk. In late 2023 then, the Afghanistan spinner underwent a procedure that would rule him out until early 2024.

However, the post-surgery Rashid Khan seemed a shadow of his former self as he carefully managed his back with a packed calendar. The legspinner's pace - his USP - dropped. His lengths wavered. The accuracy suffered. And consequently the intimidation factor, which was key in Rashid's T20 dominance, went missing.

He lost the zip and, with that, the rhythm that is so essential to his craft. The numbers were telling. In IPL 2024, the leggie bagged just 10 wickets in 12 games, at an average of 36.70 and a strike-rate of 26.2. His economy-rate spiked to 8.40 from 7.08. In 2025, those numbers plummeted further: nine wickets in 15 innings, average of 57.11, strike-rate 36.6 and economy 9.34.

After what was by far the least impressive of his 10 years in the league, Rashid went on a three-month break from cricket wherein he focused on switching off from the game but simultaneously also improving his fitness to prolong his career after a quick self-introspection revealed that a cautionary approach had bled into habit.

"After the surgery, I was very, very careful with my back. That affected my bowling action, the release and everything. So, I was trying to be careful but with that, I missed little bit of my rhythm. I was [deliberately] trying to bowl slow for 2-3-4 months," Rashid revealed in the post-match press conference.

"After having a bad season [IPL 2025] I thought, 'okay, what's wrong now? Where I'm, what's the thing I'm missing? And I felt like it was the whole rhythm, from start to the finish. [When I thought of what was holding me back], it was a bit of pain in the back still. I was scared of, like, what's gonna happen if I push it again?

"So, yeah, I gave myself a couple of months, three months after the last IPL, and focused on my fitness... I tried my best to just work on my fitness. That's something which I can improve and that does allow my body to bowl with the full rhythm."

An increased focus on improving his core strength eventually helped Rashid regain his speed, and with that he started hitting the right lengths again. A good outing at the Hundred 2025 followed and the 26-year-old felt back at his best finally.

On Wednesday, in just his third game of the season in IPL 2026, Rashid was challenging both edges of the bat and getting the ball to spin both ways. With his speed, all Rashid had to do was get his lengths right to reap the rewards.

"As a bowler you can't add so many variations, and then end up confused in the middle. You need to have a few variations, and good ones. And you need to have good control over it. For me, more important is hitting the right areas consistently - whether I bowl leg-spin, wrong 'un or a flipper. But hitting the right areas consistently - that's the challenge for me. Every day I try to improve on that and get better [in that aspect].

"There will be times when you get a flat wicket but what's more important is that when you're conceding runs on those wickets, you have to see your line and lengths... If I bowl badly, anybody can hit me.

"As a bowler you should think, 'okay, what's the toughest ball I can bowl on this wicket to make it harder for the batter?' But if you're making the job easier for the batter, bowling where he wants, then I don't think these wickets, with these [short] boundaries, are good enough to defend any total. So, it's more important that you have the control over where you want to bowl."

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