Did India Consider Rashid Khan for Citizenship and National Selection?

The Afghanistani bowler Rashid Khan has made some shocking revelations in his new book. He reveals that he got citizenship offers from two countries, as they wanted Rashid to play for their national team. What shocked the fans even more was the fact that one such country mentioned by him was India.

We have seen various Indian origin players playing for other countries. But we could have seen a foreign origin player play for India, if Rashid Khan would have accepted the citizenship offer. Yes! The Afghanistani bowler was reportedly offered Indian citizenship and he was also given an opportunity to play for the Indian cricket team, as revealed in his new book Rashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom.

He revealed that he received citizenship offers from two countries, Australia and India. Fans wanted to know more about the offer from India, but he didn't reveal much about the same. He said that the offer came during the IPL 2023 season, and it should be noted that he played for Gujarat Titans at that time.

Rashid Khan said that a high level BCCI official approached him for the same. He was offered to play for India and even stay in India, as the condition of Afghanistan is not that good. But Rashid Khan responded by firmly denying his offer, as he said that if he won't play for Afghanistan, he won't play for any other country too.

Our Take

Rashid Khan's incident of being offered a citizenship to play for India might not be the first in the history of the game. Various players have switched their national team in this way. But in the case of Rashid Khan, he always had the desire to play for Afghanistan, due to which he firmly denied the offer.