Had Jason Roy been fit to play against Gujarat Titans on Saturday, Rahmanullah Gurbaz would have had to continue warming the benches in the Kolkata Knight Riders dugout.
Roy’s back niggle was indeed a blow to the Knight Riders. But Gurbaz, replacing the Englishman and opening the batting, cashed in on the opportunity and delivered with a brilliant 81 that was lapped up by a packed house at the Eden.
Unfortunately, poor bowling and sloppy fielding at critical junctures let Gurbaz down as the Knight Riders went on to lose the game by seven wickets.
This was the 21-year-old Afghanistan opener’s second 50-plus score in this IPL. He previously scored a 44-ball 57 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in an important victory three weeks ago. On Saturday though, he looked far more composed and steady in his 39-ball knock that comprised five boundaries and seven maximums.
Gurbaz, who trains in Kabul at the Ayoubi Cricket Academy, owned by his father-in-law Latif Ayoubi, looked to focus on pure cricketing shots and play straight throughout his innings. “His strike rotation, too, was quite good today (Saturday),” Qader Gurbaz, a personal coach of the opener, told The Telegraph.
“This, in fact, is one change that he has been able to bring in his batting. Alongside rotating the strike, he’s also focusing on staying at the wicket rather than looking to play shots off every ball,” Qader pointed out.
A right hamstring injury had earlier threatened to cut short Gurbaz’s maiden IPL stint, but he did well to recover on time. Besides, off the seven sixes Gurbaz hit on Saturday, three of them came off his compatriot Rashid Khan’s bowling.
“I can’t say it’s easy for me to face Rashid, because even on his difficult days, he is one of the best. But my plan for him was simple. If he bowled loose balls to me, I would go after him.
“In fact, that was the plan to build my innings,” Gurbaz, who had wanted to become a footballer till coming across former Afghan cricketers Nawroz Mangal and Noor Ali Zadran, said at the post-match news conference on Saturday.
As Afghanistan assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai said, Rashid usually avoids bowling to Gurbaz at nets. In 41 T20Is, Gurbaz has five half-centuries at a strike rate of 134.25. His ODI numbers, though, are better as he has three hundreds and averages 41.57 from 15 appearances.
Still, there are areas where Gurbaz needs to work on, Qader believes. “He should give some respect to the good deliveries and look to rotate the strike more. If he works on these areas, he will be a far more consistent batsman.”
