For 19-year-old Afghan Rashid Khan, one of the highlights of the recently concluded Indian Premier League was receiving a tweet from cricketer Sachin Tendulkar praising his bowling skills.
Throughout Season 11 of IPL, Khan impressed everyone with his amazing bowling skills, forcing Tendulkar to tweet that Khan was best in the world.
"Always felt @rashidkhan_19 was a good spinner but now I wouldn’t hesitate in saying he is the best spinner in the world in this format. Mind you, he’s got some batting skills as well. Great guy," tweeted Tendulkar.
Khan learned of the tweet much later, and it took him nearly two hours to reply to Tendulkar's message.
“When I got into the bus, a friend sent me a screenshot of the tweet and I was shocked to see it. I was thinking for like 1-2 hours before I could eventually reply. I really didn’t know what to write, but finally I replied,” Khan told TOI. “The whole of Afghanistan seemed to have seen that tweet. Tendulkar is very, very famous there and everyone was surprised that he had such high praise for me. Statements like these motivate young players,” he added.
Besides Tendulkar, Khan also received high praises from Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani, who also thanked India for giving Khan a platform to exhibit his skills.
"Afghans take absolute pride in our hero, Rashid Khan," wrote the president on microblogging site Twitter. "I am also thankful to our Indian friends for giving our players a platform to show their skills. Rashid reminds us whats best about Afg. He remains an asset to the cricketing world."
