“For me, he was a left-handed Rashid Khan” - Aashish Kapoor discloses why he was adamant on picking Noor Ahmad

Gujarat Titans’ (GT) assistant coach Aashish Kapoor stated that he strongly insisted on Afghanistan left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad being picked by the franchise at the IPL 2022 mega auction. The former off-spinner was highly impressed with the youngster when he was the junior selector for India between 2018 and 2021.

Ahmad visited India in 2019 for a U19 tour just before turning 15. He impressed with nine wickets in five ODIs and came up with a few more impressive performances which caught Kapoor’s eye.

The GT assistant coach had informed Zaheer Khan and VVS Laxman about the upcoming talent. However, neither Mumbai Indians (MI) nor SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) followed up on it. MI and SRH’s loss turned out to be GT’s gain.

Speaking at a press conference after Gujarat’s thumping win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL 2023 match on Friday, May 5, in Jaipur, Kapoor spilled the beans on how he literally forced head coach Ashish Nehra to go for Ahmad at the IPL 2022 auction.

The 52-year-old revealed:

"I told [Ashish] Nehra you pick whoever you want, but let me pick one guy, that's Noor. Not many people knew about him. For me, he was a left-handed Rashid Khan. If you want Rashid Khan at whatever amount and you're getting another one who is a left-hander... both can be a deadly combination."

Elaborating on how Ahmad’s presence in the playing XI makes a huge difference to the team and spells trouble for the opposition, Kapoor explained:

"Earlier, because of having one spinner, we had to use two overs [of Rashid] up front, one in the middle and one at the death and that was not too many options for us. But now if Rashid is bowling well, we can bowl four overs up front because we have another spinner there who is going to be difficult [to pick].”

Noor bhai with a 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘! 🫠

@noor_ahmad_15 | #RRvGT | #AavaDe | #TATAIPL 2023 https://t.co/gGbf2y3LF2

Rashid was the Player of the Match for his figures of 3/14 as Gujarat bundled out Rajasthan for 118 on Friday. Ahmad also made a big impact, claiming 2/25 in three overs.

“Rashid kept telling him no you can't bowl like me” - Aashish Kapoor on Noor Ahmad’s rise

While Ahmad has impressed many in IPL 2023, GT head coach Nehra wasn’t fully convinced that the youngster could deliver the goods in the IPL straightaway. This is why he did not feature in a single match last season.

But Kapoor worked with the young Afghan spinner on various aspects, including his body positioning. However, his keenness to imitate Rashid proved to be a brief roadblock in his progress.

Speaking about the phase, Kapoor said:

"Rashid kept telling him no you can't bowl like me, you have to bowl like yourself. Your action is different, my action is different. When he realized that, he started bowling better.”

Ahmad did not play the initial matches for GT in IPL 2023. But Kapoor kept trying to convince Nehra about the advantage of playing two spinners and the head coach eventually bought into the idea. T

he former Indian cricketer said:

"The [ploy of] five pace bowlers really doesn't work when you play in India. In the middle overs we were going for plenty of runs at times so that's the reason why I kept pestering Nehra that we should play two spinners. Guys can't pick one [Rashid], so it'll be difficult for them to pick both together.”

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@rashidkhan_19 | #RRvGT | #AavaDe | #TATAIPL 2023 https://t.co/MRtXkDEMPa

Ahmad was Player of the Match for his figures of 4/10 on his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in June 2022.