'Never counted my wickets' - Rashid on nearing 700 mark in T20 cricket

Beyond Rashid, Noor, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and AM Ghazanfar, Afghanistan have more spinners who are working their way up to the top.

When asked about it, he responded: "Pretty much happy… If I'm not playing tomorrow or if I'm not there, we have the back-ups, and we have the options where they can come [in] with the good skills and do well for the team. Arab Gul, there is Qais Ahmad who is ready, Mujeeb is now there, we have Ghazanfar, we have Wahidullah Zadran who is doing well in Under-19 [cricket], then Noor Ahmad, we have Waqar Salamkheil, which is great. And it made us push [ourselves] a lot, it makes us work very hard.

"If we don't take things seriously, they are the ones who are going to step in. If you don't perform in cricket, you can't be just playing and playing. I don't think nowadays, [a big] name should be like always, always, always there. If you are not performing, a youngster will have more hunger than you and will have more commitment than you, so you have to step back and give him an opportunity. So, that's why we have to keep pushing ourselves and that's why I set the target of 7000 (laughs)."

Afghanistan's batting pool, though, isn't as wide as their spin pool. While Darwish Rasooli has emerged from the domestic system and made the T20 World Cup side, Rashid said Afghanistan need to expand their domestic structure if they are to unearth more batters.

"Well, we don't have much [domestic] cricket in Afghanistan, to be honest, especially [the] shorter format," Rashid said. "We have four-day cricket, but not much of the white-ball cricket. And then sometimes, for you as a captain, it becomes very hard to pick the team because you don't have many options. Like in India, lots of tournaments [are] happening every day and you see lots of talent there, and you have so many options.

"For me, what we are missing at the moment is competition, and I think that's so important for every team. When you have competition, you will try your best, you will work very hard. Anybody from Afghanistan wants to play for Afghanistan [as a] spinner, he knows - what should I do? What is the level to compete with Rashid, to compete with Noor, to compete with Mujeeb? The target is set very high and I have to work very hard. I feel like if we get that kind of competition in the batting as well, we are going to go to [a] different level."

Click here to read article