Rashid Khan had an off day against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the first qualifier in Dharamsala, but overall in a season where all other spinners have suffered, he has remained a threat. With 19 wickets in 15 innings at an economy rate of 8.77, Rashid is the only spinner among the top-ten wicket-takers in IPL 2026, which has been kinder to the seamers who bowl Test-match lengths.
Rashid is shaping up to be an especially big threat against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the second qualifier. Pitch No. 4, which was rolled out for the Eliminator on Wednesday, is set to be re-used in New Chandigarh on Friday.
Rashid has potent head-to-head records against RR's middle order - he took out Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey the last time Gujarat Titans (GT) faced RR - and even bested Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during their first meeting earlier this season in Ahmedabad in April.
In this age of Sooryavanshi, it feels like that first meeting happened in an entirely different age, but it's worth revisiting it, ahead of Friday.
Sooryavanshi had sped away to 31 off 17 balls in the powerplay on a flat pitch. He had taken down all of Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and Ashok Sharma.
Enter Rashid. His first ball to Sooryavanshi in the seventh over was on an in-between length and zipped towards the top of the stumps from over the wicket, with two men out on the bigger leg-side boundary at deep midwicket and deep square leg, including their best fielder Glenn Phillips.
Though the field had spread and Rashid was trying to deny Sooryavanshi access to the shorter side, he didn't care. Rashid darted in a legbreak, as opposed to the wrong'un, and Sooryavanshi had a crack at it. But he ended up holing out to Phillips at deep midwicket. Rashid had his arms aloft with the grin of a man who had executed a plan.
Then, in Jaipur, Rashid rattled RR finisher Ferreira's off stump with a fizzing legbreak. The sharp dip created a distance between the bat and the pitch of the ball and the sharper turn at 104kph took the ball past the outside edge and met its target. Ferreira, who was searching for the wrong'un, was made to look silly.
Rashid has rediscovered the fizz and control after he had endured his worst IPL season in 2025 on almost all metrics, including wickets (nine), economy rate (9.34) and balls per boundary (5.41) in 15 innings. In as many innings this season, Rashid has more than doubled his wickets tally and improved his economy rate (8.77) and balls-per-boundary ratio (5.41).
Having rushed himself back from back surgery, Rashid kept missing his lengths last season. If you observe him, he seems to be moving to the crease with more energy and less trouble than he did last season, and as a result his output has increased. Most notably, Rashid is the top wicket-taker in the middle overs (7 to 16) this season with 17 strikes. There's a four-wicket gap between him and the next-best bowler in this list.
"Obviously, Rashid doesn't need any kind of introduction with the kind of bowler he has been," GT's assistant coach Parthiv Patel said on the eve of Qualifier 2. "We know he had a tough season [last year] because he was coming out of injury. But after that he has recovered and has been bowling brilliantly and he's been working really hard.
"We know the kind of bowler he is and how hungry he is to contribute. He always wants to be in the action and wants those difficult situations. And that's the reason why he's been bowling so well. So, there's no question about Rashid Khan's skill level at all. We have full trust in him and that's the reason why he's part of the GT set-up since its inception."
Rashid has made a career out of doing the simple things right - bowling in a way that prevents the boundary and then using that pressure to shape the game - and he will be looking to do the same in the knockout on Friday.