Rashid wants a promotion but convincing the coaches is another matter

Rashid Khan grips his bat like it's a twig he is about to snap in half. His shoulders are side-on, and his hands are close to his hips. It's all fairly relaxed and orthodox, the kind your childhood coach told you was the key to success.

Then the ball comes towards him, and it's anything but orthodox.

His innings in Afghanistan's first T20I against India in Delhi was a struggle: he scored just 1 off ten balls from No. 8. Afghanistan slid to a seven-wicket loss.

"To be honest," Rashid tells Cricinfo in an interview facilitated by Red Bull, "when I came back to my [hotel] room, I was thinking about it all night. I was so disappointed. But mentally, you know, I made myself prepared for the next time I go into the middle: I'm going to score with positive intent."

Cut to the second T20I. The 18th over of Afghanistan's stuttering innings, and Rashid finds himself struggling again, on 13 off ten balls. He had misjudged the last ball he had faced, a back-of-a-length ball from Arshdeep Singh angling into him from around the wicket. He had looked to duck, and taken a blow.

Rashid's series with the bat isn't going well. But, at least in part, it was down to a change he had been trying to implement in his game.

"Before [in my career], I think I was just thinking about [playing shots] square of the wicket a lot," Rashid says. "Yesterday, the only thing [on my mind] was to just try to hit it as straight as possible."

Arshdeep's third ball is a good-length ball angling in from left-arm around and finishing close to off stump. Rashid stays leg side of the ball and uses his biggest batting asset, his flexible wrists, to twist his bat-face open and glide it late, down to deep third for a four.

Two deliveries later, he dances down the track. Arshdeep looks to follow him with one angled into his feet, but he steps leg side of the ball again, meets it on the full, and drills a wristy drive - can it be any other kind? - to beat deep cover point sprinting and throwing himself to his right.

Rashid jumps down again to the final ball of the over, and gets right where he needs to be to launch a full-blooded hit over the wide long-off boundary, with his bat following through over his left shoulder. He has ransacked 16 runs off the over. He will finish with 28 off 16.

A day after the game, his face lights up when asked if he wants to bat further up the order. "I always have that in my mind, to go up the order to get the responsibility of scoring more runs for the team," he says. "I think I have that skill, but hopefully, you know, I convince the coaches and the captains."

After the second T20I, Afghanistan head coach Richard Pybus had been clear that he viewed Rashid as an allrounder. "He's there with Azmat[ullah Omarzai] and [Mohammad] Nabi."

Pybus, however, had said Rashid would need to do more to merit a promotion.

"It is about consistency with the side," Pybus said. "Part of the development of all the players, even though Rash is a mature player, is actually doing the work to see if you can actually move up and put pressure on other guys."

Rashid's batting CV, however, must surely tempt Afghanistan to at least occasionally send him in with a good chunk of the innings left. In IPL 2018, playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 against Kolkata Knight Riders, he smacked 34 off ten, a knock elevated to near-mythic levels once he took 3 for 19 and effected a sharp run-out to put SRH in the final.

Next year, batting in the Big Bash League, he blitzed 40 off 18 to almost carry Adelaide Strikers to a miracle New Year's Eve win.

Then there is his top T20 score while with Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023, a scarcely believable 79* off 32 balls. All three knocks were played from No. 8.

He continues to bat at the same spot for Afghanistan. "At the moment, it's just a set order," Rashid says. "If [my chance to bat] comes in the 16th over or the 19th or the 14th over, that's my position to go in."

He has had different roles at other teams, defined by the phase of the innings. "When I was playing in the Big Bash, the coach was very clear to me," Rashid says. "He [asked me to pad up] as soon the 14th over starts. So I knew I'm going to go in for that period of time.

"Even while playing in Shpageeza [Premier League] in Afghanistan, one of our coaches, Karim Sadiq, sent me in the [tenth] over. I scored around 40 [37 off 23]. So, I think if you get that clear license from the senior guys, the coach, the captain, it helps me in the middle."

Watch any of Rashid's best knocks, and you see one shot, one special shot, over and over again, off full balls at the stumps. From his crouched position, without appearing to contort any part of his body and just use his wrists, he will whip the ball up and over square leg or midwicket, often clearing the boundary. It's a mutant shot, a flick-sweep.

In the second T20I, despite the bowlers aiming at his stumps on more than one occasion, he did not attempt this shot once.

"Just make sure you use [your wrists] at the right time," he says. "Sometimes, you keep thinking about your wrists a lot, so then, when the ball is not there, and you try to play it, it just doesn't go well.

"So you know you have quick hands where you can hit [to the leg side], but it's more about you knowing when you're going to use those wrists, and when you're going to use the pace [of the ball], and when you're going to go harder."

Rashid reveals that this new selectiveness is the result of his work before the India series. "My batting coach Naeem Amin, who is from the UK, is the one I always have a discussion with whenever I want to [work on my batting]," he says. "Before I came here, I had a good three-four sessions with him in London.

"So that really helped me, and we were only working on making sure we play straight, keep the balance right, and [fix] my head position."

Pybus wants Rashid to put in the work if he wants to earn a promotion. Rashid has been doing just that. How this story develops will be interesting to watch.