LONDON   -     Apart from his world-class legspin, Rashid Khan also brings to Afghanistan a more-than-useful ability to his sixes down the order. In 44 ODI innings, he’s cleared the ropes 24 times. Rashid’s two recent sixes against Ireland, however, weren’t even meant to go that far. Both times, according to the man himself, Rashid was only trying to hit the ball for four. “When I was batting with that bat against Ireland … I wanted to hit a boundary (four) and it went for six,” Rashid told cricket.com.au. “I was like, ‘What happened? That went for six?’ I was trying to hit (another) one over mid-off for a boundary and it went for six. I was like, ‘there is something in the bat’. I loved the bat.” It was a special bat, gifted to him by a special player, Virat Kohli. Sadly, Rashid might not be able to put the magic Kohli bat to use at the World Cup.

“As soon as I came to pavilion, our previous captain Asghar Afghan, he was like, ‘give me that bat’, and I was like, ‘oh no’. I was unable to reject him because I was unable to say no to him. So I said, ‘okay, it’s up to you’. He’d already taken it out from my bag and put it in his own bag. That was a special bat, from a special player as well. He took that bat and I hope he doesn’t do well with that and gives it back.”