Rashid Khan has been injured out of Trent Rockets' final two group stage games of The Hundred 2024, leaving them without their star overseas player for the crux point of the tournament.
Rashid Khan injured his hamstring while fielding in the last over of Rockets' match last week against Southern Brave. At the time, Rockets were on six points with two matches to go, and still not ruled out of making the knockout stage. However, the lost to Birmingham Phoenix on Monday means they are now mathematically ruled out of advancing to the next round of the competition.
Having missed the opening match of The Hundred, against Northern Superchargers, to play in the MLC Eliminator for MI New York, Rashid played five matches for the Rockets in total this year as one of their highest-salaried players. He took nine wickets, including four wickets against London Spirit.
Rashid is one of the busiest players on the franchise circuit. Aside from The Hundred and MLC, he also played for Gujarat Titans in the IPL, his first tournament back to professional cricket following undergoing back surgery after the 2023 World Cup. He missed a couple of games for Gujarat during the IPL to manage injury concerns. That back surgery also ruled him out of the PSL, the SA20 – where he was set to appear for MI Cape Town – and the Big Bash, which was the first time he missed a BBL season since 2017.
Despite turning only 26 this year, Rashid has played international cricket since 2015, and has featured in 445 T20 matches in that time. Of the 11 players to have played more T20 matches than him in their careers, each of the active ones is at least nine years older than him. As his franchise commitments continue at a similar pace and Afghanistan play more and more international cricket, his increasing injury count could be a sign that the volume of cricket he plays could be beginning to catch up with him.
Rashid Khan recent injury timeline
December 2021 - May 2022
Rashid plays a full BBL season for Adelaide Strikers. He takes 20 wickets across 11 matches. He then plays three ODIs for Afghanistan against the Netherlands in Qatar, before flying to Pakistan for nine matches for Lahore Qalandars in the PSL, the first of which takes place less than three weeks after his final BBL season.
He leaves the PSL early for an ODI and T20I series in Bangladesh, until March 5. The same month, he plays his first of 16 matches for Gujarat Titans in their title-winning 2022 IPL season, which finishes at the end of May.
June 2022 - December 2022
Having finished the IPL on May 29, Rashid is back on international duty five days later in Zimbabwe. He then has a stint in the T20 Blast before playing two Hundred matches for Trent Rockets, book-ending an ODI series in Ireland with the matches. He then heads out to play the Asia Cup a week after his last game in the league.
After that gets over in mid-September, Rashid heads out for the CPL, though he manages to get a break in end-September. Aside from a quick pit-stop for an ODI series in Sri Lanka, it is full steam ahead for the T20 World Cup in Australia, in which Afghanistan finish last in Group One after two of their games are washed out. With international cricket done for Afghanistan for the year, Rashid returns to the Big Bash in December after a month, and is named T20I captain of Afghanistan that same month.
January 2023 - October 2023
Having finished up the BBL in the first week of January, Rashid plays in the inaugural SA20 a week later. He plays 10 games in South Africa, concluding on February 6, and steps out as Afghanistan's T20I captain 10 days later in the UAE. Three days after the final match of that series, he is back playing in the PSL.
His last match in the PSL is on March 18, while his first match in the IPL is two weeks later. His first injury of note in this period comes after the conclusion of the IPL on May 28, when he misses the first two ODIs of a series against Sri Lanka in the first week of June with a lower-back injury. He is able to play in the final match but is rested for the following Test match as the ACB are 'prioritising his long-term fitness'.
In July, however, he is back in both international and franchise action, appearing in the first edition of the MLC, and four out of six white-ball internationals in Bangladesh. There are ODI series in August, September, and October in the lead up to the 2023 World Cup. During that time, however, Rashid pulls out of the third edition of The Hundred, citing an undisclosed injury.
November 2023 - present
Following Afghanistan's impressive performance in the 2023 World Cup, Rashid undergoes back surgery, which rules him out of the 2023/24 BBL, T20Is in India, the 2024 PSL, and 2024 SA20. He returns to action in the IPL after the series against Ireland in March; goes on to lead Afghanistan's record run in the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup; and stays in North America for the MLC. His hamstring injury during the ongoing Hundred is his latest injury concern, which has put him in doubt for Afghanistan's one-off Test match against New Zealand next month.
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