Rashid Khan is known as one of the best leg-spinners in the world but commentators are starting to wonder if he isn’t fast becoming an impressive all-rounder, especially in the IPL short format.

After having been snapped up by the new team on the block, the Gujarat Titans, Rashid’s batting skills are on the mark in this year’s tournament – skills which have helped his team leap-frog their way up to the top of the points table.

With a reputation of being a wicket-taker formed by playing all these years in IPL, the batters don’t take risks against him. This year however, in IPL 2022, batters have taken a more defensive approach with him – leaving him with fewer wickets than he’d like.

However, he has scalped nine wickets from nine matches with an outstanding economy of 7.11.

Over the years, he has been phenomenal in the IPL taking 102 wickets from 85 matches with an economy of just 6.41 but this year, Rashid has stepped up his game to become a key batter in only a few matches.

Going into the IPL 2022, the responsibility of finishing the innings was going to be in the hands of Rahul Tewatia and Hardik Pandya. David Miller was also in the team but his IPL numbers were not so impressive as he had scored only 124 runs in 2021 while 213 runs in 2019.

This meant the batting not only lacked depth but Hardik started playing in the middle-order for the team.

In came Rashid. In the game against Chennai Super Kings, the team was chasing a target of 170 runs but were reduced to 87/5 at one stage. David Miller went on to rescue the team with his half-century but Rashid played a perfect supporting act by playing a cameo.

His knock was so effective that it turned the game on its head and a tough target was within the team’s reach.

Rashid secured 25 runs from a single over off Chris Jordan, which tilted the game in Gujarat Titans’ favor.

His cameo of 40 runs from 21 balls helped his team win the game by three wickets in the last over but his next appearance with the bat came against Sunrisers Hyderabad, which had been on a winning streak.

Against Sunrisers, it was one of the worst days for him with the ball as he leaked 45 runs without taking any wicket and the rival team went on to post a total of 195/6.

Chasing such a huge target was going to be tough for Gujarat Titans which were reduced to 140/5 when Rashid walked in to bat.

But he was a picture of calmness and produced a remarkable finish.

Speaking to the media about his batting skills this week, Rashid said he has been quietly working on it for the past two to three years.

“From the last two-three years, I’ve been working on my batting. I have that self-belief that I should be there and finishing for the team,” Rashid said,

“I have those skills and talent but it was just about the confidence in myself that I could finish. The best thing is I get more opportunity here in this team to bat,” he said.

Facing his former franchise Hyderabad, Rashid showed how devastating his batting could be, slamming an unbeaten 31 off just 11 balls as Gujarat Titans completed an improbable chase of 195 to halt Hyderabad’s winning run.

Rashid walked in with the Titans 140/5 in 16 overs, all five wickets falling to Umran Malik’s pace. There were 56 runs needed from the last four overs, but in Rashid and Rahul Tewatia, Gujarat had two men familiar with conjuring victories out of nothing.

Rashid finished it off with three sixes in four balls, the last two coming off the final two balls when nine were needed for victory.

“The snake shot” is what he calls it, because of the way the wrists uncoil and strike.