Warne tells England to ignore Rashid at peril

ENGLAND have not given up hope of bringing Adil Rashid back into the Test fold – and selector Ed Smith believes the leg spinner still has ‘aspirations’ in red-ball cricket.

Aussie spin legend Shane Warne says England would be “missing a trick” if they do not consider him for this winter’s Test series in India.

Rashid, 32, won the last of his 19 Test caps in the Caribbean 18 months ago and is currently on a white-ball contract with Yorkshire. Warne said: “Rashid’s probably coming into the best form of his life. He could offer a lot to this Test team.”

Smith has included Rashid, right, in England’s 14-man squad for the Twenty20 series against Pakistan later this month. He said: “Adil has made great strides since his shoulder injury and his form in white-ball cricket is really good.

“We see the skill and mastery in that form and we will work closely with Adil and Yorkshire to see if he is ready to play four and five-day cricket moving forward.

“He’s coming back from a reasonably serious operation and there’s a big difference between bowling 10 overs or approaching 100 overs in a single game.

“Adil is still working on the physical side but, in the long term, I think he still has aspirations to play for England in all forms of the game.” Dawid Malan, who scored a T20 century against New Zealand last winter but missed the series against Ireland with a calf injury, is recalled.

Chris Jordan, who had elbow surgery last month, is also back. But James Vince misses out. ENGLAND SQUAD: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey.