Analysed: The rare Rashid Khan slump, and the short road back to his best

In the 18th over of the Boost Defenders’ innings against Speen Ghar Tigers, Rashid Khan struck twice with the first two balls. He didn’t complete the hat-trick, but did manage to clean up another batter off the last ball to make it three in the over and finish with figures of 4-19.

On paper, the world’s most successful T20 bowler dominating lower-order batters in the Shpageeza Cricket League shouldn’t be news. But this over meant more than usual for Rashid. It was the first time in 29 T20 matches in 2025 that he had taken more than two wickets in a game.

That is a staggeringly long stretch of games for someone like Rashid, who used to pick up three or more wickets once every 6.3 T20 matches till the end of 2024.

After nearly a decade of running through batting lineups for fun, Rashid spent the first seven months of the year being a shadow of his former self. 22 wickets from 28 matches at an average of 38.09 and an economy rate of 8.21 spelt… ordinary – not an adjective Rashid had ever been associated with before. IPL 2025 was a disaster. From being unplayable across seasons, he suddenly became the bowler to target. No one who bowled more than 50 overs averaged worse than his 57.11, or conceded more than his 9.34 runs per over.

Had T20 cricket finally caught up with Rashid Khan?

What changed for Rashid?

Rashid’s economy rate in a calendar year first went above seven in 2023 (7.10), but that was largely a function of evolving T20 batting, where risk-taking became more and more frequent, even against opposition’s best bowlers. His wicket-taking ability remained intact. In fact, he took 27 wickets in IPL 2023 striking every 14.9 balls, most he has taken in a single season of the tournament so far.

It was the back surgery he underwent after the 2023 World Cup that proved to be the game-changer. Or rather, the fact he underwent the surgery after the 2023 World Cup.

In a chat with ESPNcricinfo’s The Cricket Monthly in 2024, Rashid revealed that he was advised to go for a surgery before the World Cup, but he didn’t, choosing to play the marquee tournament instead: “I used painkillers to keep going, but in the final three matches of the World Cup, I was literally playing at 40 per cent fitness."

It worsened his disc bulge, so much so that his doctor told him that a failed surgery could mark the end of his career. Eventually, Rashid was back on the field by March 2024, playing three T20Is against Ireland before heading to the IPL. But the effects of the surgery showed.

Rashid wasn’t getting the kind of zip through his action that made facing him a nightmare. His accuracy suffered too. The economy went up from 8.24 in IPL 2023 to 8.4 in IPL 2024, but more worryingly, he seemed to lose his wicket-taking threat, picking up only 10 wickets at an average of 36.7.

IPL was followed by the T20 World Cup in June, the MLC in July, and the Hundred and Shpageeza in August. The relentless run of games resulted in Rashid picking up multiple minor injuries in the second half of 2024, cutting short his Hundred and Shpageeza stints and ruling him out of the rained-out New Zealand Test in September.

Despite struggling with fitness, Rashid held his own through these tournaments, but the killer blow came in January 2025, when he played a Test match against Zimbabwe. Bowling 27.3 overs across both innings of the match, Rashid’s back endured the kind of workload it was not ready for.

The effect? 28 T20 games without a three-wicket haul.

Also read: Rashid Khan injury: Is the franchise circuit catching up with the world's busiest cricketer?

By the time IPL 2025 came around, Rashid had lost not only his wicket-taking prowess but also his ability to keep the runs down. Loose deliveries became more frequent: for the first time in his IPL career, he was conceding more than one boundary every over on average (one every 5.4 balls). He was hit for 33 sixes, one more than he conceded in his first two IPL seasons combined.

The major difference in effectiveness was felt against right-hand batters, who scored at 9.69 runs per over and averaged 109.3 against him. Two years back, they had averaged less than one-fourth of that (24.9). Three years back, it was almost one-sixth (18.4).

Rashid Khan in the IPL

Mystery spinners are ‘found out’ after a year or two of success. Not after ten. As Rashid would admit in another chat with ESPNcricinfo last month, this was just a case of his body being overworked and under-rested.

“When I came back to cricket after surgery, I was told not to rush back in the longer formats that quickly as that was not going to help me. About eight to nine months after I had started to play post surgery, I bowled 65 [55] overs in the Bulawayo Test. That really pushed my back a little bit, and I felt it at that time. I shouldn't have been in whites [to play Tests].”

Also read: Six Tests, five five-fors: Rashid Khan's Test start is up there with the best in history

The rise back up

After the IPL, Rashid took much-needed time off, pulling out of MLC 2025 and choosing to rest instead. His first game back was in the Shpageeza league, almost two months after his final IPL match. After three lukewarm outings, Rashid finally managed to break through with a four-wicket haul, giving him the perfect stepping stone to head into the Hundred a week later, where he picked up 12 wickets in six matches at 13.66.

After the first match against London Spirit, where he took 3-11, Rashid explained how he felt like he was back to his best: "On Tuesday, I was bowling at 94-98 kph – that's my pace, speeds I am known to bowl at. I feel I was missing that before because my body was not allowing me to go through [my action] with that full energy. Last night, [against Spirit], when I came to bowl, I was getting that good feeling, and I was touching that speed with which I could put the batsman in trouble, and also not allow him much time to read from the surface."

The Hundred was followed by a successful tri-series against Pakistan and the UAE, where he took nine wickets from four games, averaging 12.77 and conceding 7.18 runs per over. In fact, in the ten matches since his four-for against Boost Defenders (ahead of the Asia Cup), Rashid has picked up at least three wickets five times, in stark contrast to the first half of the year. Boundary balls have reduced, the zip seems to be back, and so does the threat he is known to pose.

Also read: How soon can Rashid Khan get to 1000 T20 wickets?

The best of players go through dips in their careers. But Rashid seems to be climbing out of his at a time when he has just become the highest wicket-taker across T20s, both international and domestic. And he's only 26.

Batters around the world should probably start worrying. Again.

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