Five youngest players to take a five-wicket haul in the history of ODI cricket

#3 Rashid Khan: 18 years 178 years

He is an inspiration, already

The rise of Afghanistan cricket has been the most heartening and inspirational story of contemporary cricket. These individuals might not have truckloads of talent or immense financial support to usher them forward, but they make up for that with their undying reserves of spirit, dedication, and passion for the game.

Rashid Khan, at just 19 years of age, is one of the pioneers of this incredible story. He has displayed extreme consistency with his wrist-spin in the last couple of years and has already scripted his name in the golden pages of history.

The Afghanistan leggie now stands at the top of the ICC ODI rankings for bowlers. It is a splendid achievement for any bowler, more so for a 19-year-old. The fact that the feat has been conquered by someone coming from a country like Afghanistan makes it breathtakingly extraordinary.

His first five-wicket haul in international cricket came in a special ODI encounter against Ireland in March 2017, where a bowler from each side scalped six wickets each. Paul Stirling, who was Khan’s counterpart on the other side of the game, was given the Man of the Match award for his six-wicket stint.

However, it was Khan who ensured that his team notched up a 34-run victory over the Irishmen. He bowled 9.3 overs in the game and picked up six wickets, giving away just 43 runs. It is worthy to be noted that while Stirling had slightly better figures than the leggie on the day, most of his dismissals came in the form of lower-order batsmen.

Khan, on the other hand, was responsible for the departure of three of the top four batsmen in the Irish line-up, thereby ensuring a bigger impact on the overall scheme of things.