Rashid not bothered about talk of his age, uses it as 'motivation' instead

Rashid Khan, the 23-year-old superstar leg-spinner for Afghanistan has revealed that he doesn't get bothered by talk of his age by fans and the media.

There has been plenty of discussion on social media among fans as to what Rashid's real age is, with many believing he's much older than what his official age is. 

"I see a lot of things written about me in the media, which should not be taken seriously. Most of the time you will see negative things in the media and very little positive. It's become a normal occurrence almost," Rashid told the media after Afghanistan won the 2nd and final T20I against Bangladesh and levelled the series at Mirpur on Saturday. 

"As a player, I am used to things like these and I try to use the negatives as motivation. This helps me get mentally stronger," he added.

There was a rumour of Rashid saying he'd get married if Afghanistan won the T20 World Cup in 2021, which he quashed: "There is not a single audio clip or any evidence of me saying this, so I don't know where people get these things from."

"What I said was I have no plans to get married in the next two years because there are two World Cups in the next two years. After that I will think about it," he revealed. 

Although Afghanistan cannot host international cricket matches due to the Taliban takeover, Rashid dreams that it will be possible one day. 

"This is a big dream of mine. We played against Bangladesh today and we saw how the crowd supported them in their home ground. That's a different kind of feeling. We would like to get that feeling too. That's a dream for every player representing their country. It'll be special if we can invite countries like Bangladesh, Australia or England to Afghanistan for a series. Hope that happens one day," he concluded.