Tom Moody, while in conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, revealed how Rashid Khan made a solid first impression at Sunrisers Hyderabad within 20 minutes of his first net session.
An 18-year-old Rashid was bought by the Sunrisers at the 2017 IPL auction and he impressed straightaway, picking 17 wickets in his first season. With 21 and 17 wickets respectively in the next two seasons, he has since grown into one of the most important parts of the SRH bowling line up.
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Recalling the time Rashid had his first net session with the team, Moody revealed how none of the batsmen, including David Warner, “understood what he was doing”.
“I can probably put it down to the very first net session we had, in our camp before the first season that he played,” he said. “There were a few question marks around whether he could bowl, or whether a kid from nowhere can suddenly step up and one, command the attention he did at the auction but two, deliver on the big stage.
A hat-trick for Rashid Khan in #BBL09
Do we love him or do we love him😍pic.twitter.com/nDi5bFW7Uo
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 8, 2020
“So I got a couple of our senior players, including David Warner, to face him and within 20 minutes I realised that we had picked a gem. Because his level of competitiveness in that net scenario was to me, ‘Right, this kid is ready to go. He is not worried who he is bowling to, he is delivering it so consistently.’ No one understood what he was doing. They couldn’t work out which way he was turning now.
“He just ticked every box in that first training session and he just went from strength to strength. Because once you get the trust and the positive vibe back from your environment, any player that is, it’s a very powerful thing. And he had that in 20 minutes.”
