{"id":156848,"date":"2026-04-19T18:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=156848"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:03:45","slug":"afghanistans-rashid-khan-says-he-turned-down-citizenship-offer-from-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=156848","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s Rashid Khan says he turned down citizenship offer from India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70881281\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Afghanistan\u2019s talismanic leg-spinner Rashid Khan was informally sounded out by not one but two countries, including India, with offers of citizenship and an opportunity to represent them, but the star cricketer declined, choosing instead to stay loyal to his homeland, a new book has revealed.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cRashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom\u201d, scheduled to release on Monday, the all-rounder tells author Mohammad Haand Jafar that both India and Australia extended such offers, which he declined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI received such offers (citizenship and playing) from both Australia and India. But I told them, \u2018If I don\u2019t play for my country, I won\u2019t play for any other country either,\u201d Rashid is quoted as saying in the book.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/bangladesh-vs-pakistan-test-series-sarfaraz-ahmed-named-head-coach-full-squad-for-ban-v-pak\/article70876884.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bangladesh vs Pakistan Test series: Sarfaraz named head coach; four uncapped players included in squad<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>While he does not elaborate on the Australian offer, the 27-year-old cricketer recounts the Indian offer in detail from the 2023 Indian Premier League season.<\/p>\n<p>Rashid, currently playing in the IPL for Gujarat Titans, recalls being informed by his team official that a \u201chigh-ranking official from the Indian Cricket Board\u201d wanted to meet him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went over and greeted him. We started talking, and he said: \u2018The situation in your country (Afghanistan) is very bad. Come stay in India. We will give you Indian documents, live here, play cricket here\u2019, \u201c Rashid said, narrating the instance in the book.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised by what he was saying and didn\u2019t know how to respond. But I smiled and said, \u2018Thank you very much. I am playing for my country, Afghanistan\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on Apr 19, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/rashid-khan-turned-down-citizenship-from-india-australia-book-biography-afghanistan-cricket\/article70881281.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Afghanistan\u2019s talismanic leg-spinner Rashid Khan was informally sounded out by not one but two countries, including India, with offers of citizenship and an opportunity to represent them, but the star cricketer declined, choosing instead to stay loyal to his homeland, a new book has revealed. In \u201cRashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom\u201d, scheduled to release&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/VIS_6063.JPG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-ENO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}