IPL 2017 auction: Afghanistan players Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan make history

There was a lot of excitement for the cricket-mad public of Afghanistan as two of their players were picked at the Indian Premier League auction. (LIVE BLOG)

Their eighteen-year-old leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, is now being called the ‘million dollar’ baby by his teammates after Rashid was picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 4 crores on Monday. Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi was the first Afghanistan player to be picked at the auction at his base price of Rs 30 lakhs.

“His googly is difficult to pick and he fires it on target,” is how former Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi described Rashid on the eve of the auction.

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Rashid has been following in the footsteps of Nabi. If Nabi was the top wicket-taker at the 2016 World T20 Cup in India with 12, Rashid was a close second with 11. The highlight of Rashid’s performance being his spell of three for 11 in the win over Zimbabwe at Nagpur.

He repeated the performance on Sunday, when he claimed three wickets for 25 runs to rout Zimbabwe in the second ODI at the Harare Sports Club. Nabi also snared three wickets in the game and scored 33-ball 33.

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The two were brilliant at the Bangladesh Premier League with Nabi claiming 19 wickets in 13 games and Rashid claiming 13 wickets in eight games.