The 26-year-old Rashid was making a return to the format after nearly four years, after being named in Afghanistan’s Test squad for the Zimbabwe series. He had taken a break from Test cricket due to injuries and workload management as he turned out in various T20 leagues alongside featuring regularly in white-ball cricket for Afghanistan instead.

Rashid missed the first Test due to personal reasons but made a comeback in the next, plucking out 11 wickets, including seven wickets in the second innings. Despite playing just one game, he ended as the series highest wicket-taker, two more than second-placed Blessing Muzarabani and six more than teammate Zia-ur-Rahman. It has taken his tally to 45 wickets in just six matches at an average of 20.44.

It is the second-most any bowler has taken after six Tests, at par with Vernon Philander. Only Charlie Turner is ahead of the duo, with 50 wickets in his first six Tests. Rashid, however, has the most wickets as a spinner after six Tests, followed by Prabath Jayasuriya (43).

Rashid, who first played a Test in June 2018, needs five wickets to become the second-quickest to 50 scalps in the format. The list is headed by Turner, who picked up his first 50 Test wickets in just six games. If Rashid gets to the feat in his next Test – only scheduled for 2026 – he will become the joint-quickest in the last 13 years to 50 Test wickets, along with Jayasuriya – unless, of course, someone else surpasses him in the next year.

In 11 innings, Rashid has also taken five innings five-fors and three 10-wicket match hauls. He has finished with 11 wickets in a game thrice and had match figures of 7-102 against Ireland in 2019. He is yet to go wicketless in a game, and has picked up at least two wickets in an innings on 10 occasions. With his recent ten-wicket haul, Rashid joined an illustrious list of players with ten-fors in at least two successive Test matches, having also taken 11-275 when he last played, against Zimbabwe in 2021.

Rashid has also taken the third-most five-wicket innings hauls after six Tests: Turner (eight) and Thomas Richardson (six). Rashid is tied with Philander, Jayasuriya, Rodney Hogg and Axar Patel in third place, all of whom picked up five five-fors in their first six matches.

Rashid is also Afghanistan’s most successful bowler by a distance. No other player has taken 20, with Amir Hamza second on the list, with 18 scalps in four games. He has taken nearly 29 per cent of the wickets picked up by Afghanistan bowlers in Tests and is their only player to average below 20, highlighting just how effective he has been.

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