All-rounder Rashid Khan is reconsidering playing in the Big Bash League (BBL) after Cricket Australia (CA) indefinitely postponed the T20I series with Afghanistan last month. Rashid said he was ‘hurt’ by CA’s decision and that him playing in Australia’s premier T20 franchise tournament was undermining his teammates. 

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Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Rashid, who is a big crowd puller in the BBL playing for Adelaide Strikers, lamented the treatment meted by CA towards his country. 

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“It does hurt you. You do want to play against the best teams and that’s where your cricket is going to improve more and more. You only get the opportunity playing against them [Australia] in the World Cups, but not in bilateral series,” said Rashid on the eve of Gujarat Titans’ IPL match against Delhi Capitals. 

“You don’t want to play with my colleagues and you want to play with me. So what’s the difference? It means I’m putting my colleagues down as well. My country down as well.”

Rashid highlighted the recent T20I series against India and said such bilateral matches against big teams helped the Afghanistan side understand and raise its level in the international circuit. 

“We nearly chased 200 [212] against India. Imagine if you wouldn’t have played that, where would the confidence come from?”

Last year, Rashid had threatened to withdraw from the BBL but changed his mind and entered the draft. However, he missed out on the tournament as he had to undergo back surgery. 

What did CA say?

In March, CA binned the series due to concerns over the human rights of women and girls in the Islamic country under Taliban rule. 

The board stated that the assessment from the Australian government was “that conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan” were getting worse. It also noted that Afghanistan remains the only full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) without a women’s team at the senior level.

“For this reason, we have maintained our previous position and will postpone the bilateral series against Afghanistan,” the statement added. 

Despite not playing regular matches with the top teams, Afghanistan came perilously close to defeating Australia in the ODI World Cup last year in India. It took a herculean double hundred from Glenn Maxwell for Australia to get over the line when Afghanistan looked like prevailing at one stage. 

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