I’M SORRY ADIL, BUT I WOULD KEEP YOU ON THE SIDELINES

Adil Rashid might have made himself available for England’s first Test against india but i’d warn Ed smith and his selection panel not to get themselves in a tangle over the spin issue. Yes, Rashid has suggested he would be prepared to resume his international career in all formats. But i’m not sure that’s the way it works, Adil. You have to make yourself available for your county, play some red-ball cricket, then see if the selectors pick you. i haven’t got a problem with Rashid. it’s his career and i felt he was a little hard done by at the end of the india tour 18 months ago. he took 30-odd wickets that winter and England should have persevered with him. The signs were that his bowling was going in the right direction. But one of the questions this throws up is how much faith and confidence Joe Root has in Rashid. sometimes it can work against a player to be in the dressing room so much with an England captain — Root and Rashid (below) are Yorkshire team-mates — because while he sees all your good points, he also sees your bad points. i understood Rashid’s decision to give up first-class cricket to concentrate on the white-ball game and he has been excellent for England in the limited-overs matches since. Now, if he wants to play Test cricket again, he needs to turn out in the County Championship. if he does that, and becomes a candidate later in the summer, fine. let’s face it, England are not good enough to discard anyone. But Jack leach and dominic Bess, the two men identified by the selectors as the best frontline spinners in the country, need to be treated properly. i don’t think it would be a great statement to tell those lads — leach in particular — that there has been a rethink and England are going back down another road. it wouldn’t be fair and could harm their careers. The selectors should stick to their guns and pick leach for the first Test. it looks like Moeen Ali will earn a recall, too, and i haven’t got a problem with that. look at Moeen’s record against india last time they were here four years ago, when he took 19 wickets at 23 runs apiece, or versus south Africa last summer when he claimed 25 at 15.64, and it tells you that he is a very good bet in England. i would let the future look after itself by sticking with Moeen at home, then being very firm with him ahead of touring sri lanka this autumn, saying: ‘sorry Mo, but the stats tell us you are not very good away from home as our frontline spinner.’ With the Edgbaston pitch expected to be dry, i would include Moeen as the second spinner. England will certainly need him in the second Test because Ben stokes is not available for lord’s and Mo will give them that one-and-a-half spinner option plus the batting to cover the loss of their premier all-rounder. As for the pace bowlers, i would pick Chris Woakes and sam Curran now that Mark Wood is injured and out for a fortnight. it was worrying that Wood sent down just half a dozen overs for durham this week and, now his absence is confirmed, Curran gets the nod for the sake of continuity. The only caveat is that, although the surrey man offers a left-arm variation, his inclusion would mean England have a very one-paced attack. i cannot stress enough how important it is to be developing bowlers with that extra yard of pace, such as Warwickshire’s Olly stone and his teenage county colleague henry Brookes. As for the batting, i would stick with the same group who finished against Pakistan, with Jonny Bairstow remaining at five, stokes at six and Jos Buttler at seven. One positive this summer is that there are more batsmen keeping people on their toes. Nick Gubbins is a good player, Rory Burns is getting a lot of runs and Olly Pope in the middle order is going to be pushing for a place pretty soon.