Star Afghanistani spinner Rashid Khan has matched the record for most wickets-West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo-in T20s. The 26-year-old claimed this feat on Friday, January 31, well within the match between MI Cape Town (run chase) against Pretoria Capitals at Supersport Park, Centurion. Rashid opened his wicket account by bowling out Pretoria Capitals captain Kyle Verreynne off the third ball of the 11th over during the run chase, before equalling Bravo’s record by breaching Marques Ackerman’s defense and shattering his stumps off the second ball of the 15th over.
Bravo has retired after a 18-year-long T20 career with 631 wickets in 582 matches with Rashid having also done so in 460 matches. The T20I team captain of Afghanistan made his T20 debut on October 26, 2015, in a match played between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in Bulawayo and, in fact, got one wicket.
In the past 10 years, apart from playing for the Afghan team on 96 occasions in T20Is, Rashid has also played T20 matches for Adelaide Strikers, Band-e-Amir Dragons, Barbados Tridents, Comilla Victorians, Durban Heat, Gujarat Titans, Guyana Amazon Warriors, ICC World XI, Kabul Zwanan, Lahore Qalandars, MI Cape Town, MI New York, Speen Ghar Tigers, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sussex, and Trent Rockets men’s team.
Most wickets in T20s
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) – 631
Dwayne Bravo (West Indies) – 631
Sunil Narine (West Indies) – 573
Imran Tahir (South Africa) – 531
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) – 492
Most wickets in T20Is
Tim Southee (New Zealand) – 164
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) – 161
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) – 149
Ish Sodhi (New Zealand) – 138
Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh) – 132
Rashid has become the second highest wicket-taker in T20Is with 161 wickets and has 149 wickets in 121 IPL matches for two teams in the competitive cash-rich league. He picked up 98 wickets in 69 Big Bash League matches for Adelaide Strikers, and in 19 SA20 matches for MI Cape Town, he has 18 wickets.
In the Pakistan Super League, Rashid played 28 matches for Lahore Qalandars, where he took 44 wickets. He achieved the figures of 6/17, which is his best performance in a T20 match, while playing a BBL match on January 12, 2022, for the Adelaide Strikers against Brisbane Heat at the Gabba.
Rashid, who was retained for Rs 18 crore by Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2025 mega auctions, will take the next step to possibly surpass Bravo’s record and become the all-time highest wicket-taker in T20s when MI Cape Town faces Pretoria Capitals on Sunday, February 2, at Newlands in Cape Town.
