The elegant leg-spinner, Rashid Khan has decided to continue playing for in their New Year’s match against Sydney Thunder despite the fact that the youngster had lost his father on Sunday, Adelaide Strikers have announced on Monday. The Afghanistan legspinner had announced his father’s death on Sunday evening through a Twitter post where he said he had lost “the most important person in my life”.

In the media release, the franchise said, “The Adelaide Strikers advise that Rashid Khan wants to play in tonight’s match against the Sydney Thunder at Adelaide Oval in honor of his late father. Rashid’s father passed away last night and Rashid has decided that he will stay in Adelaide and play tonight. The Strikers give their condolences and full support to Rashid and his family during this difficult time. The family has asked that their privacy is respected.”

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Here is the tweet:

He also tweeted from the Rashid Khan Foundation account, the foundation he established to support Afghan children and orphans in need of education, clean water, and healthcare. Here is the tweet: 

A lot of people from the cricketing fraternity were quick to send Rashid messages of support in the aftermath of the news. Here are some of those tweets:

Rashid has had an excellent start to his latest BBL campaign, taking five wickets and conceding an average of just 3.41 runs per over from his first three games. He is currently the No.1 in ICC rankings for T20 bowlers this year and is closing in on 100 T20 wickets for this calendar year.

It will be the fourth match for the Strikers in the 2018 season. Earlier this year,  in February, the team won its first Big Bash League (BBL) title when it beat the Hobart Hurricanes at Adelaide Oval.