Data Shorts: Rashid's misfiring radar

Rashid Khan doesn't often get outbowled. Let alone by a fellow spinner, that too by someone who is much younger in terms of experience on the big stage.Against RCB on Wednesday, Sai Kishore finished his four-over spell, conceding just 22 runs along with the wickets of Jitesh Sharma and Krunal Pandya. Meanwhile, Rashid bowled a wicketless spell for 54 runs. Liam Livingstone, against whom Rashid had figures of 3/27 off 22 balls in IPL previously, took him down for 39 runs off 17 balls - the second highest a batter has ever scored off him in a T20 innings.

While Rashid tried to bowl faster and missed his lengths, Sai Kishore hit the good length spot frequently, and varied the pace and trajectory to outfox batters. All 24 deliveries from Rashid were north of 90 kph with an average speed of 94.68 kph while Sai Kishore varied it from 83.70 to 97.90 with his average speed reading 88.88 kph. Against Jitesh, he went over the wicket angle and slowed the ball down to 89.4 kph after his previous two balls to the batter clocked 90+ kph. This helped him to get the ball to drift and turn, which took it further away from Jitesh's hitting arc and the batter duly miscued a slog. The left-arm spinner then foxed Krunal Pandya with a carrom ball that drifted in and turned away from the southpaw. Sai Kishore stayed in the spinners' good to back-of-length zone (4-7m) for 68% of his balls while the same for Rashid read 42%. Today's spell was a microcosm of the larger malaise that has affected Rashid in recent times.

Rashid came to IPL 2024 having played just five T20s since the previous edition of the tournament due to a long-standing shoulder injury. In 15 games across the last two editions, he has picked up just 11 wickets and is conceding at 8.92 per over, a far cry from the elite standards he set for himself. While the Impact Sub rule has made batters go harder, one key reason from a personal front behind Rashid's decline in fortunes has been him missing the lengths more often, especially on the fuller side.

According to data logs, Rashid has bowled 22.80% of his balls in the full length zone in IPL since 2024 and conceded at 15.57/over - almost double of his economy rate of 7.92 for good lengths or shorter. In each of his four most expensive IPL spells in terms of economy rate (2+ overs), he erred on the fuller side and leaked runs like he did at Chinnaswamy today. In the IPL between 2019 and 2022, the share of balls in the full length zone stayed under 20% during each of the four seasons. Even when he erred, it used to be on the shorter side, so a combination of his low trajectory and air speed made it tough for the batters to get under.

This is the first major dip in form for Rashid Khan across his career spanning a decade and 450+ T20s and it will be fascinating to see how he responds to the adversity.