Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who is currently playing in The Hundred tournament in England, has found support from his team Trent Rockets. The franchise captain Lewis Gregory on Friday said the whole team is trying to keep Rashid busy.
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on Sunday, as Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded that the insurgents had won the 20-year war.
Rashid, 22, who played the eliminator against Southern Brave on Friday night, was seen sporting Afghanistan's flag on both his cheeks.
"We have a fantastic group of lads, and they have really rallied around him, trying to keep him busy and look after him as much as we can," Gregory told Sky Sports. "I know he has been around a long time, but he is still a young lad. You can see he is not his regular bubbly self, and all we can really do is try and pick him up."
Khan, who is among the best bowlers in the T20 format, and is in huge demand around the world, is the joint highest wicket-taker along with England's Adil Rashid (before the start of Friday's eliminator) with 12 wickets.
He has also managed an economy rate under eight.
"The guy is unbelievable. He has done it all around the world, and he is doing it in England this year. When you throw in the circumstances with what's going on back home where his family are, it's nothing short of amazing. What he brings to his country and cricket is huge.
"He is fully focused on his cricket," Gregory said.
On Thursday, Rashid had shared a picture of him kissing the flag of Afghanistan and sporting the country's flag painted on his face.
Earlier, cricketers Mohammad Nabi and Samiullah Shinwari had also called for peace on social media.
Former Afghanistan footballer Khalida Popal, who is based in Denmark, had also urged female athletes to erase their social media accounts and any trail of their sporting careers.
“I have been encouraging to take down social media channels, take down photos, escape and hide themselves,” Popal was quoted as saying by AP.
“It breaks my heart because all these years we have worked to raise the visibility of women and now I’m telling my women in Afghanistan to shut up and disappear. Their lives are in danger.”
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)