“The doctor told me like, ‘if you don’t want to play cricket, you keep playing the red-ball cricket’ because it’s not going to support you. You won’t be [there] for longer to play for Afghanistan and I still went and I still played and when he knew I bowled 67 [55] overs in one innings, in two innings, he was shocked. He was ‘no, you can’t do that to yourself’. I will think about that.”

Rashid may be rationing his long-format appearances because he had previously pushed himself too hard. Initially when he was diagnosed with his back injury, with the 2023 World Cup in the frame, he opted against having surgery in order to keep playing for Afghanistan. That diminished his abilities as a bowler and left him with a lot of pain. So now he wants to be better at managing the time he spends on the field and is unlikely to play Afghanistan’s next Test, against India on June 6.

“I’ve already played one before [for this year]. So I will just take it easy,” Rashid said, highlighting other considerations, including how players from countries who are only outside chances to make the World Test Championship final view the format. “Imagine something happens to my back in that Test match. I can’t play 100 Test matches. If you’re playing one Test in a year, I can’t play for 100 years. And there is no target in Test cricket.”

Rashid’s current focus is on the IPL, where he has picked up five wickets from three matches and then he is looking forward to the 2027 ODI World Cup.

“ODIs, yes, I enjoy,” he said, “And I’m in a good shape to play ODI for a longer period of time for Afghanistan, but just to be careful with how many I play and not to put too much load on myself, to be careful if I want to play for a longer period of time. But especially, red-ball is something which looks a bit difficult for me to keep it. Yes, one Test in a year, I will take that. But I don’t think so more than that I can play. I will try. I can play but [only] if I bowl a spell of 20-25 overs. But then I have to bowl the whole day if I’m in a team. Last two Test matches if you take, I bowled 167 [154.2] overs which is I think too much.”

Since making his Test debut in 2018, Rashid has played a total of six matches, picking up 45 wickets at an average of 20.44.