Adelaide Strikers spin wizard Rashid Khan intends to play out the remainder of the BBL season while mourning the death of his father.
The Afghan legspin sensation has laid bare the emotion of lining up for the Strikers on New Year's Eve after his father died the previous day.
Rashid snared 2-34 in the victory over Sydney Thunder and again stood tall on Thursday night, taking 1-18 as the defending champions defeated Melbourne Renegades.
The world's No.1-ranked bowler in T20 cricket hopes to find time to return home to Afghanistan at some point during the season.
The Strikers have no games scheduled between January 13 and 21.
But he intends to see out the rest of the campaign after being urged by his family to stay the course in honour of his late father.
"I decided to play all the games. If I get some free days I will try to manage myself to try to go home," Rashid told reporters.
"It was tough. He really supported us, he struggled a lot.
"He was always watching my games. He didn't understand cricket a lot but he just was asking my family how (Rashid) had done.
"In this situation, my family has really supported me, my fans all over the world are supporting me.
"Especially my mum, my brothers, my nephews, they were encouraging me a lot from back home. They were calling me again and again.
"They were like, 'you have to be there, you have to play for us, you have to play for your dad. We can see you're sad, you're alone there, you're (a long way) from home.' That's how their motivation helped to stay here and play for the Strikers."
The 20-year-old said he had leaned on teammates for support as well as fellow Afghani Mohammad Nabi, who lined up against Rashid on Thursday night for the Renegades after sharing a long conversation with him the previous night.
Rashid, who was last summer's leading BBL wicket-taker despite missing the Strikers' two final matches on national duties, has also been heartened by support from the wider public.
"The whole of Australia is my family," he said.
"Everyone is looking after me, very close for me and very friendly and like a family member. They give me lots of love and I didn't feel myself to be alone here."
