It’s a huge kick in the teeth for county cricket
It’s the job of England’s selectors to pick the best 11 cricketers available for the test and there is a good argument that the way Adil Rashid is bowling — albeit in white-ball cricket — makes him one of the best two spinners.
England fans turning up at Edgbaston next week wanting to see their side beat India are not going to be worried about the bigger picture or county politics. they just want their team to win.
so I understand why England have selected Rashid. It just doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
Don’t label me a fuddy- duddy. As the selection of Jos Buttler showed, you can get into the test side with your white-ball form. I have no problem with that at all.
Neither do I like to pigeon-hole people as white-ball cricketers or test cricketers. But the difference between Buttler and Rashid is that Buttler never made himself unavailable for red-ball cricket. Rashid did — and that for me is the crux of the matter.
His selection is a massive kick in the teeth for county cricket, and a massive kick in the teeth for any spinner who has been trying his nuts off to get into the England side or, in the case of Jack Leach and Dominic Bess, to stay in it. I feel for those two guys.
It’s also a dangerous precedent because it says you don’t have to play for your county to play for England.
What happens in a few games’ time when there is a week off and the England selectors want a couple of the batsmen who are out of nick to go and play county cricket? they’re exhausted and part of them will be asking, ‘Can’t I have a few days off to prepare for the next test?’ Meanwhile, it’s fine for Rashid to go and sit at home for a week.
there is another issue in terms of mindset. We are entering a schedule of five tests in six weeks and it is going to be a test of mental toughness. there will be a period when Rashid will question himself as a cricketer.
What worries me slightly is that someone who has given up on redball cricket will be asking himself: ‘Do I need these pressures, these strains, these stresses?’
Of course, it might be that he takes five wickets and never looks back, but I worry — when it comes to those difficult situations — whether Adil will be able to dig deep and deliver the goods.
England also seem to be going round in circles when it comes to spinners.
the list over the past couple of years has gone from Rashid and Moeen to Gareth Batty, Zafar Ansari, Liam Dawson, Mason Crane, Leach and Bess, now back to Rashid. Why is it that batsmen get several games to bed in while spinners get one or two and are then jettisoned?
I would have picked Leach as he played the last game in New Zealand before he got injured.
Moeen is a frustrating cricketer. Look at him over the past 18 months and it has been complete highs and lows. the highs of last summer when he was arguably England’s best cricketer to the lows of the Ashes.
there is not much in between and it’s the same with his batting. He’s either majestic or rash.
In contrast, uncapped Essex seamer Jamie Porter (below) has been picked for his consistency. He deserves his chance. He has been taking Division One wickets for fun and gets good players out as an accurate, English-type bowler.
He pitches it up, swings it away and can also drag his length back and hit the deck. He’s not rapid, and that does leave England a bit one-paced. But I guess with James Anderson not being 100 per cent, and stuart Broad and Ben stokes coming back from injuries, they wanted a safer bet as opposed to a tear-away like Jamie Overton.