" Ekdum majama [absolutely fine]" - Rashid Khan turned to Gujarati with a laugh as he ended his press interaction after Gujarat Titans (GT) confirmed a top-two spot in IPL 2026 with a demolition of Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Rashid had reason to be "absolutely fine" personally too. He had wiped out the CSK lower-middle order on his way to returns of 3 for 18 from two overs,. he had also risen to the fourth spot on the Purple Cap table as a result. Rashid hadn't been anywhere near his best in the last two IPL seasons, or in any cricket,. he has turned the clock back here. No doubt he has been helped along by a super-efficient fast-bowling pack that has worked wonders more often than not.
On Thursday night. Rashid started his spell in the 11th over with everything set up for him to run through CSK, who were 109 for 5 chasing 230 for victory. Rashid started with a single to Dewald Brevis. was tonked for six by Shivam Dube next ball, pitched up on a straightish, hit-me line to the left-hand batter Dube. Next ball, Dube was gone, though that was more Shubman Gill than Rashid with a running-and-diving catch. Anshul Kamboj walked out and hit Rashid for six too, but after 1-0-14-1, Rashid ended with 2-0-18-3. A good day's work.
"In this game, when you're defending 230, you will go for runs. It's not something like you're going to bowl 18 to 20 dot balls," Rashid said. "The batter is going after you, but for you as a bowler, one thing is how I'm going to make it super hard. tougher for him to hit that ball for a boundary. I felt like on the first ball I bowled to him [Dube] - he hit. [for] six - it was just an easy ball for him. But 'let me just try to bowl a harder one away from him and see how it goes'. For that length, line was so important. In such a game, the batters have no option but to go after the bowler. That's why we practice so that mentally and physically we are ready for any condition."
There's a reason Rashid is the highest wicket-taker in T20Is - 193. with second-placed Ish Sodhi at 165 - as well as in T20s - 721, with second-placed Dwayne Bravo at 631. And that has a lot to do with how his mind works. or how he has trained his mind to work.
"You have good days, bad days,. I feel [the way] you manage yourself on good days, you have to know how to manage yourself on bad days as well," Rashid said. "Whenever I had a bad day, I never put that too much in the mind. That gives me so much learning, and that's why we keep getting better because we keep learning. And if you keep doing well. you don't have any bad days, I don't think so, you can learn a lot.
"On that day in 2019 [ against England in the ODI World Cup ], it was one of the days for me where I gave more than 100 runs in nine overs [9-0-110-0],. then I think you can't change much. You know everything remains the same. You can't really change your action or pace. it's just about the one thing you can do: hit the right area consistently. I feel like in that game I just missed my line and length. And I just kept myself little bit focused [after that] on how I am going to hit the right area consistently.
"And regardless of what comes in the result, I never change my practice. Keep doing that hard work. If I do well, if I don't do well, I know what makes me a better bowler -. what makes me a better bowler is to hit the right area consistently. And that's something which is key, especially nowadays when batters straightaway go after you.
"End of the day, when you go back to a room. you see your pitch map - that matters to me the most. So every game I play I ask the video analyst to send me the pitch map,. I see where I pitch the maximum deliveries and what I can do better. If I miss my line, why did I miss it? So I just work on that. I don't really think about what came up in the result."
Rashid had two mediocre seasons. An average one in 2024, when he picked up ten wickets in 12 games at an economy rate of 8.40,. then a really poor one in 2025: nine wickets in 15 games with an economy rate of 9.35. This year, the wickets have come (19) and the economy rate is much better: 8.72.
His form has almost mirrored GT's. Champions in their first season in 2022 and runners-up the next, they finished eighth in 2024 with just five wins. They did get to the playoffs in 2025, but that was despite Rashid's poor returns,. primarily down to their top-three batters: Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler. This season, both departments seem to be firing in unison. Not to forget. GT have been the winningest team in the IPL since they became a part of it in 2022. They win-loss ratio is 1.642, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) placed second at 1.433.
"Winning nine games out of 14 is a great feeling for the team," Rashid said of the ongoing season. "Overall, we have a great percentage of winning games. It is just about keeping things simple. We are not here to think about being top four or top two,. things will come as long as you keep it simple."
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