The leg-spinner, an all-time great of the T20 format, also showered England with praise after a clinical bowling and fielding display on Saturday
Rashid Khan has suggested England could be the "best side" in the T20 World Cup and called upon Afghanistan to be given more opportunity to play bilateral series outside Asia in a bid to gain experience.
Afghanistan lost their opening game of the T20 World Cup by five-wickets in Perth on Saturday. Although they made England labour a little in pursuit of victory, they were never able to recover from losing their final five wickets for the addition of just three runs resulting in an under-par total of just 112.
Although it was Sam Curran who claimed the most eye-catching figures (he took 5 for 10), Rashid suggested it was the pace and bounce generated by Mark Wood which really tested the Afghanistan batters. Having never previously played a T20I in Australia, the adjustment to the quick Perth surface proved a significant challenge. Wood returned the quickest average speeds (just over 92mph) ever recorded in a four-over T20 World Cup spell.
"I hope we get more bilateral series," Rashid said. "All the youngsters in the team want to play the big sides. The more experience you get in these conditions, the better.
"We play most of our cricket in Asia – 80 to 90 per cent of the team's batters haven't played in Australia. Suddenly you come here and you're facing someone who is bowling 150kph plus every ball. It's very hard.
"The more we play against the good teams in tough conditions, the sooner we can become a better team. But we hardly get that kind of opportunity to play the best teams. It's only in the Asia Cup and ICC events.
Mark Wood bowled a rapid spell against Afghanistan in Perth (James Worsfold/Getty Images)
"I think that was the first time as a team we faced someone who's bowling 150-plus. He was bowling the quickest today. Everything was 150-plus. I felt lucky I didn't have to face him.
"But it's good for us. When you face him, you understand how it feels and it allows you to learn. It's definitely a good experience for us.
"The team has the skills. We have the bowling unit, but we're struggling just a little bit with our batting. So now it's just about the opportunity we get. The more we get, the better we will become."
Rashid was particularly impressed with England's fielding. They claimed at least three excellent chances in the field with Liam Livingstone, at deep backward point, Jos Buttler, diving down the leg side, and Adil Rashid, running towards the boundary and clinging on to another diving effort, especially impressive.
"It was definitely the difference," Rashid said. "Those two or three catches gave them the momentum they wanted and I think those batters were quite unlucky to get out. The Buttler catch, the Livingstone one and then the Rashid one, they were great efforts in the field.
"I think England are one of the most balanced sides in the competition. The batting is so deep and if you have that long batting line-up you have more chances. For me, they are the best side in the whole competition."