Rashid Khan again proved why he is regarded as one of the finest spinners of modern-day cricket. He was the show stopper in the one-off Test against Bangladesh which concluded on Monday (September 9) with Afghanistan winning it by a massive margin of 224-runs. It was Afghanistan's only third Test and already come equal to Australia as most Test win after first three Test matches.
The victory for Afghanistan couldn't have been possible without their star player Rashid Khan who became the youngest to lead a side in Test cricket. The 20-year-old was in hot form during the match as he single-handedly blew Bangladesh away with his career-best performance. He first scored a brilliant 51 off 61 balls to take Afghanistan to 342-runs in the first innings. On a spin-friendly surface, he dismissed Bangladesh with 5 for 55 and followed with 6 for 49 in the second innings to end the match with 11 wickets for 104 runs.
Rashid Khan's miracle performance has not only given Afghanistan a memorable win but also it has included him in the elite club of the bowlers. Rashid has already become the youngest to score a fifty and take 10+ wickets on Test captaincy debut. At the conclusion of the one-off Test, he is now in top 10 bowlers with the best bowling figures in a Test as captain.
Here is the list of the Top 10 bowlers with most wickets in a Test as captain:
1. Courtney Walsh (WI, 13 Wickets) - One of the leading wickets-takers in Test with 519 wickets to his name, Courtney Walsh one of the most fearsome bowlers of his time. He is probably the only bowler who bowled fast longer than any other bowler. In 1995, he blew New Zeland away at Wellington and registered the match figure of 13 wickets for 55 runs (joint-most for a bowler as captain).
2. Waqar Younis (PAK, 13 Wickets) - Waqar Younis was one of the two Pakistan bowlers along with Wasim Akram who introduced the art of reverse swing bowling. Against Zimbabwe in 1993 in Karachi, Waqar Younis grabbed 13 wickets for 135-runs as Pakistan won the match by 131-runs.
3. Rangana Herath (SL, 13 Wickets) - Rangana Herath is arguably the finest spinner Sri Lanka has ever produced after the legendry Muttiah Muralitharan. Herath's strengths are his accuracy and his ability to bowl long spells. His strengths came to hunt Zimbabwe in 2016 when he took 13-wickets for 152 runs in Harare.
4. Fazal Mahmood (PAK, 12 Wickets) - Another Pakistan's fast bowler who was not that fearsome as Akram and Waqar Younis but has had a fair amount of success in his Test career. He grabbed 12-wickets for 100 runs against West Indies in Dhaka in 1959. He took 6-wickets in each innings to hand West Indies a 41-run defeat.
5. Imran Khan (PAK, 11 Wickets) - In the 1970s and 1980s, when cricket was not that popular in the subcontinent, Imran Khan gave the much-needed attention in this part of the world. Currently serving as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan is probably the finest player Pakistan has ever produced. Against India in 1982 in Karachi, Khan showed some glimpse of his talent. He picked 11-wickets in the match and led Pakistan to an innings and 86-runs win.
6. Arthur Gilligan (ENG, 11 Wickets) - Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was the right-arm fast-medium bowler from England. He only played 11 Test and took 36 wickets including 11 wickets for 90 runs in the match against South Africa in Birmingham in 1924.
7. Allan Border (AUS, 11 Wickets) - Allan Border was one of the finest batsmen of his time and mostly known for his batting records rather than the bowling. He has picked only 39 wickets in his long career of 156 Test matches. Despite being the part-time Slow left-arm orthodox bowler, Border rattled West Indies in 1989 with his career-best bowling figures of 11 wickets for 96 runs.
8. Jason Holder (WI, 11 Wickets) - Jason Holder is seen as future of West Indies cricket. In this time when most of the West Indies' players are attracting towards T20 cricket, Jason Holder has settled himself as pure Test specialist in a short time. He is not a typical West Indies' pacer who bowls fast. His strength is his accuracy and consistency and with his line and length, he has troubled most the batsmen around the world. Against Bangladesh in 2018, he showed the glimpse of his accuracy and picked 11 wickets for 103 runs in the match.
9. Rashid Khan (AFG, 11 Wickets) - Afganistan has played only 3 Test so far and won two of them. Rashid Khan, after making his mark in white-ball cricket around the world, has started his Test career with the same run of success. He has already picked 20 wickets in 3 matches including the match-winning performance against Bangladesh.
10. Imran Khan (PAK, 11 Wickets) - The World Cup-winning captain in 1992, Imran Khan has produced several match-winning spells in his career and one of them came against West Indies in 1988 in Georgetown when he dismantled Windies with 11 wickets in the match. Pakistan won that match easily by 9-wickets and Khan was adjudged man of the match for his yet another fine performance.
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