Rashid Khan stresses accuracy and fitness as key to his comeback for Gujarat Titans

Gujarat Titans spinner Rashid Khan emphasises bowling accuracy and fitness as crucial to his performance, reflects on mistakes during injury recovery, and backs the team’s strategy to overcome middle-order concerns by maintaining focus and leveraging their strong bowling attack.

Hyderabad: Gujarat Titans star leg-spinner Rashid Khan said that the most important thing for him was to bowl in the right areas and to maintain a good economy, especially in the middle-overs.

Speakig on JioStar’s ‘Google Search AI Mode Match Centre Live’, Rashid said that whenever he conceded runs, it was because he had bowled bad balls.

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“ So, that was on my mind. If I could minimise the percentage of those as much as possible, it would benefit me. My focus was to consistently hit the 5 to 5.5-metre length, which really helped me” he said.
On his post-injury journey, Rashid said: “It was a back injury and, given the energy I bowl with in my action and run-up, I needed to work consistently on my fitness after that injury, which, to be honest, I
did not do. My rehab did not go as well as it should have.”

“ I only had about two to two-and-a-half months to get back on the field and, since those were Afghanistan matches, I had to play. The second big mistake I made was playing a Test match, where I bowled around 67 overs, after which I felt the injury again. So, after the IPL last year, I wanted to give myself and my body more time to recover properly, complete my rehab, and regain the energy and
intensity that I bowl with. It is all going well now and, hopefully, it continues,” he explained.

On GT’s middle-order issue, Rashid said: “In a competition like the IPL, every team will have a weakness in some department, whether it is bowling, the middle order, or the top order. We try, as much as
possible, not to focus on that. Whoever gets the responsibility in the middle, including myself, should aim to score 15-20 runs if I have five to 10 balls to play”

“ That is extremely important because if we keep thinking that our middle order is weak or that the top order failing will put us in trouble, we lose our focus. If you look at some other teams in the
competition, they do not have a bowling line-up of the calibre that we do. So, our focus is to restrict the opposition batters to low scores and make things easier for our batters,” Rashid said.