Rashid Khan to skip Big Bash League 2024-25 season

Afghanistan all-rounder Rashid Khan will not feature in the Big Bash League 2024-25 season after deciding to opt out of the draft, scheduled to be held on September 1.

Cricket Australia has stated that the star leg-spinner, who has represented Adelaide Strikers since 2017, will miss back-to-back BBL seasons citing a busy international schedule for Afghanistan, as reported by the Australian Associated Press.

Afghanistan, world No. 10 in T20 rankings, are slated to take on Zimbabwe in Test and white-ball matches in December. Rashid, meanwhile, is also set to play in the SA20 cricket tournament for MI Cape Town, where he will be joined by compatriot Azmatullah Omarzai, in January 2025.

A former world No. 1 T20 bowler, Rashid had also missed the previous edition of the BBL after undergoing back surgery following the 2023 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup.

The 25-year-old Afghan all-rounder was injured with another back problem earlier this month and missed the final two games of The Hundred 2024 for the Trent Rockets.

Since his BBL debut in December 2017, Rashid Khan has scalped 98 wickets, the most of any overseas player in the Big Bash League, in 69 matches with a stunning economy rate of 6.44 for the Adelaide Strikers. He also boasts a strike-rate of 150.37 with the bat in the Australian T20 tournament.

Rashid was Adelaide Strikers’ leading wicket-taker in BBL 2017-18, helping his team clinch the title with 18 scalps. With 19 wickets in BBL 2018-19, he was the Strikers' best bowler once again.

Earlier this year, Rashid Khan played a crucial role in helping Afghanistan reach the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the United States and the West Indies.

Rashid’s Afghanistan team-mate Mujeeb Ur Rahman, however, is one of the 10 overseas nominations for the first draft of the BBL 2024-25 season. Unlike Rashid, Mujeeb is not a part of the third season of the SA20.

Laurie Evans, Alex Hales, James Vince, Jason Roy and Jamie Overton are the five Englishmen in the overseas draft along with New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson, West Indies’ Shamar Joseph and the Pakistani duo of Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf.

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