Rashid Khan becomes T20 cricket's highest wicket-taker

Rashid Khan, for long one of the most compelling sights in T20 cricket, has now climbed to a pinnacle becoming the format's highest wicket-taker ever. The 26-year-old Afghanistan wristspinner went past Dwayne Bravo's tally of 631 wickets when he bowled Dunith Wellalage in the SA20 qualifier 1 against Paarl Royals on Tuesday.

"It's a great achievement," Rashid told the host broadcaster after his team secured victory. "I never thought about it, if you asked 10 years before this if I would get there. It's a proud feeling to be from Afghanistan and to be at that level where you top the table. DJ [Bravo] is one of the best T20 bowlers. It's a great honour and I'm looking forward to continuing."

Rashid made his T20 debut when he was still a teenager in October 2015. He is now fast approaching 500 matches having been a hugely sought after player in leagues all over the world. He has won an IPL title and a PSL title and was virtually a household name in Adelaide where he played 69 matches for the Strikers, including picking up career-best figures of 6 for 17.

The ability to bowl quickly through the air and keep the stumps in play made Rashid an extremely difficult bowler to face, especially since it was hard to pick which way the ball was going to turn. He gave batters no time to adjust and very little clues what was going to happen. Eventually, teams simply started playing him out without taking too much risk. Rashid could run through a side - he has 20 hauls of four wickets or more - but his defining quality was that he could always keep opposition batters under control.

Rashid spoke about how wickets weren't necessarily his priority in an interview with The Cricket Monthly last year. "If someone is going after me, I'm going to make it super hard for him. If he still hits it, it's a good shot. But I won't ease down [on creating the pressure]. It's more about making things harder and harder for the batter."

As he gained experience - Rashid has played in the Hundred, CPL and the BPL - his batting also improved. He is known for his ability to come in and hit sixes straight away and has a shot all his own, called the snake shot, where he gets underneath a yorker length ball and whirls his wrists to such an extent the bat makes contact and surges back, like whiplash. Rashid's all-round prowess was on show in the playoffs of IPL 2018 when he made 34 off just 10 balls to lift Sunrisers Hyderabad to a total of 170 and then helped defend it by taking 3 for 19 and taking two catches as well.

In a sign of how influential Rashid can be, his current IPL team, Gujarat Titans, retained his services for INR 15 crore (USD 1.8 million approx).