Afghanistan’s cricket superstar Rashid Khan has joined Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) as its exclusive brand ambassador.

“Rashid Khan is a young and prominent personality of the country who has shone brilliantly in cricket and in his social life,” AWCC said in a statement.

Rashid said he was thrilled to join AWCC as its brand ambassador.

“This is a great brand that I have always believed in and AWCC has been a front runner in the digital possibilities materializing in the country,” Khan said on X.

“Together I hope that we help more people to connect, encourage people to learn more and further utilize their talents and share their experiences more widely.”

What makes Rashid great!

Rashid Khan was Afghanistan’s first global superstar, and the key to the team’s successes in their early years in international cricket.

ESPNcricinfo experts say his extraordinarily effective leg spin has made him one of the greatest T20 bowlers ever, and among the first names on wish lists of teams in leagues all around the world.

Not a big turner of the ball, he puts batters under pressure with his speed through the air, like his bowling idol Shahid Afridi, while maintaining a stump-to-stump line. His biggest weapon is an accurate googly, and he has many variations. With bat in hand he is more than capable of clearing the boundary late in an innings, and he has airbrushed many a middling total into a match-winning one for his team, ESPNcricinfo states.

Rashid was just 17 when he made his ODI debut during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe in October 2015. Less than two years later, he was snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL for close to US$600,000.

After a superb 17-wicket first season with them, he picked up franchise deals with Guyana Amazon Warriors – for whom he took the first-ever hat-trick in the CPL in 2017 – and Adelaide Strikers, with whom he won his (and their) first BBL title in 2018.

He scaled new heights for Afghanistan as well, taking 5 for 3 in a T20I against Ireland to keep a record 11-match T20I winning streak alive, and later in 2017, taking his country to a win over West Indies in their first ODI in the Caribbean with 7 for 18.

He was duly honored as the 2017 ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year.

The following year, he became the youngest cricketer to top the ODI bowling rankings, the youngest man to captain an international side, and the fastest to 100 ODI wickets.

In Afghanistan’s inaugural year in Test cricket, Rashid took five second-innings wickets in the team’s first win, against Ireland, and six months later made an important fifty and took twin five-fors, finishing with 11 wickets in a famous win over Bangladesh in Chattogram. In 2021, he took 11 again, this time in a win over Zimbabwe.

In his five seasons with Sunrisers, he was a huge presence, taking 93 wickets at an economy rate of 6.33. When he moved to Gujarat Titans in 2022, he took 19 wickets in a run that led the side to the title.