Rashid Khan refused Indian citizenship offer from a high-ranked official: ‘I am playing for my country, Afghanistan’

Rashid Khan rejected citizenship offers from India and Australia, reaffirming his loyalty to Afghanistan in his new book.

Rashid Khan’s loyalty to Afghanistan has long been one of the defining parts of his story, but a new revelation in his book has now added a striking layer to that image. According to PTI, Rashid has said that he received offers from both India and Australia involving citizenship and the opportunity to represent them in international cricket, but he turned them down because he did not want to play for any country other than Afghanistan.

Rashid Khan denied Indian citizenship as per his own book. (AFP)

The revelation appears in Rashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom, a new book that traces his rise from Nangarhar to global stardom in cricket. While Rashid has built a career as one of the most sought-after T20 cricketers in the world, the central theme of this episode is not franchise success or financial opportunity. It is loyalty, identity and a clear personal line he chose not to cross.

Rashid recalls India, Australia's approach in new book

According to PTI, Rashid Khan says both countries made approaches, but his answer was immediate and rooted in his commitment to Afghanistan. “I received such offers from both Australia and India. But I told them, ‘If I don’t play for my country, I won’t play for any other country either,’” he says in the book.

That line is the heart of this story. It is direct, personal and impossible to misread. Rashid is not talking about a vague possibility here. He is describing a conscious choice, one where even major cricketing opportunities elsewhere were not enough to pull him away from Afghanistan.

The India episode, as recounted in the book, is described in greater detail. Rashid says the approach came during the 2023 IPL season. At the time, he was already one of the biggest names in the tournament and a central figure for the Gujarat Titans. He says a team official told him that a high-ranking official from the Indian cricket board wanted to meet him.

Rashid then recounts the conversation. “I went over and greeted him. We started talking, and he said: ‘The situation in your country is very bad. Come stay in India. We will give you Indian documents, live here, play cricket here.’ I was surprised by what he was saying and didn’t know how to respond.”

He says he chose to handle the moment politely but firmly. “But I smiled and said, ‘Thank you very much. I am playing for my country, Afghanistan.’”

The remarks also reopen an older public conversation around Rashid and India. Back in 2018, after one of his standout IPL performances for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Indian fans had flooded social media with calls for him to be granted Indian citizenship. Then, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj responded that citizenship matters were handled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, while former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani made it clear that Rashid was a source of national pride for Afghanistan.

This time, though, the story carries a different weight because it comes from Rashid’s own recollection. That is what turns it into more than a passing anecdote. Rashid has spent years building a reputation as a global T20 star, but this episode underlines something even bigger in cricketing terms: that despite the leagues, the fame and the reach of his career, he still saw Afghanistan as non-negotiable. For a player whose journey began in hardship and rose to the top of world cricket, this now stands as one of the strongest statements of loyalty attached to his name.