Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan on Monday revealed the reason why the franchise let go off Rashid Khan in the 2022 season. The ‘Afghan Wizrard’ was not retained by the 2016 champions. He was picked by Gujarat Titans, along with Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill, ahead of the auction for Rs 15 crore.

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Khan is the vice-captain of Gujarat and has taken six wickets in four games for the team. 

SRH left experts puzzled when they decided to not retain Rashid Khan for IPL 2022. They went with skipper Kane Williamson (Rs 14 crore), Abdul Samad (Rs 4 crore) and Umran Malik (Rs 4 crore). The Afghan leg-spinner had joined the orange army in 2017. He picked 21 wickets that season and followed it up with 17 wickets in 2019, 20 wickets in 2020 and 18 wickets in 2021. 

In his five year stint with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rashid Khan played 76 matches in which he picked 93 wickets. He is the second-highest wicket-taker from the franchise after Bhuvneshwar Kumar. 

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The team wanted to retain Khan but could not afford him, SRH bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan revealed. 

“We didn’t want to get rid of Rashid Khan, but we couldn’t afford him,” The Sri Lankan legend during a mid-innings conversation with the commentators on Star Sports during Gujarat Titans’ innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad. 

Rashid Khan had ahead of Gujarat Titans’ game vs SRH had admitted that playing his former side ‘would be a different experience’. 

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“This year, a team which I played for 5 years, I will be up against them. It’s a different feeling. Bowling to someone like Kane is always a huge pleasure as a bowler. We spent a good five years together while we had that kind of competition. Now against each other, it’s a lovely contest. I think fans would love to see that,”  Rashid Khan said on the Gujarat Titans social media channels.