VAUGHAN’S RAGE AT ‘RIDICULOUS’ CALL-UP
thing to do from an England perspective but we feel very disappointed. ‘We have been told all along Adil’s not available for red-ball cricket and only as recently as last Friday that was the case. ‘We spoke to him after the Royal London Cup and he didn’t want to play red-ball cricket. So we signed Josh Poysden on loan from Warwickshire. ‘This is another case of believing
we would have a certain player available, only to have him taken away from us. We were led to believe that Adil would be available for the remainder of our T20 campaign and now suddenly he’s not.’ Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan, a former Yorkshire team-mate of Rashid, added on Twitter: ‘So we have picked someone who cannot be a***d with 4 day cricket... Forget whether he is good enough or not I find this decision ridiculous!’ Selector Smith set something of a precedent earlier this summer by plumping for Jos Buttler on the back of outstanding white-ball form. The difference is that Buttler had not given up on a Test career as Rashid appeared to do when Mason Crane pipped him for an Ashes tour place last September. That triggered the decision to become a white-ball specialist for club and country from February. Smith said: ‘I’m not party to the relationship between Adil and Yorkshire. I am sympathetic to Yorkshire’s position in terms of their planning.’ Plunkett, 33, is leaving for Surrey on a three-year contract after Yorkshire declined to offer the fast bowler a new deal. ‘It is not because he’s a bad cricketer or a bad person,’ said Moxon. ‘But availability to us is becoming more of a problem and today’s announcement just highlights how fickle any plans we have are.’