SPIN IT to WIN IT!
With Rashid set for recall, England are ready to turn the tables on India and...
WHEN Adil hid dismissed Virat Kohli at Headingley last week with a leg-break he later described as ‘the best ball I’ ve bowled in international cricket’, the psychology of England’s intriguing five-Test series against India threatened to rotate on its axis.
England v India has often centred on spin — but the emphasis has usually been on the Indians’ latest slow-bowling sensation.
And while their left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav was tying batsmen in knots during the first T20 at Old Trafford, where he took five for 24, and the first one-day international at Trent Bridge, where he took six for 25, the narrative for England’s batsmen felt grindingly familiar.
Instead, they learned to play Kuldeep with more confidence, limiting him to figures of 20-0-123-3 in the last two ODIs. And, against the odds, it was Rashid who ended up pinching the headlines.
The expression on Kohli’s face as he tried to work a leg-break through the onside, only for it to turn back across him and hit the top of off stump, was the biggest compliment an Indian batsman has paid an English spinner since MS Dhoni singled out Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar during England’s famous Test series victory in 2012-13.
Not only did Rashid’s sleight of hand and wrist ensure the one-day games finished with a moraleboosting 2-1 win for England ahead of the first Test at Edgbaston on August 1, it also set cogs whirring i n the minds of coach Trevor Bayliss and selector Ed Smith.
Smith has already resurrected Jos Buttler’s Test career, despite traditionalists moaning that he hadn’t played enough red- ball cricket to merit a recall.
But Buttler is now enjoying the summer of his life, and the question looms: could Smith do the same with Rashid, who appeared to have given up hope of a Test recall after opting for a white- ball contract with Yorkshire?
Michael Vaughan cast doubt on the scenario, tweeting: ‘Surely Adil Rashid’s position is simple. If he commits to playing red-ball cricket for Yorkshire, he becomes available for selection!!!! If not, he should not be considered.’
But Rashid encouraged the idea on Thursday night, writing in his Sky Sports diary that he would ‘consider’ resuming his Test career if England were interested.
He would certainly offer something England’s other three spinbowling candidates — the Somerset pair of Jack Leach and Dominic Bess, plus Moeen Ali — do not. Unlike that trio of finger spinners, Rashid can turn the ball both ways — one of the reasons he is so effective in the limited-overs formats, where his googly is so potent.
None of this automatically translates to success at Test level, of course, and Rashid’s 10 caps to date have yielded a costly average of 43. But he was dumped, perhaps too swiftly, when Joe Root replaced Alastair Cook as captain after the 2016-17 tours of Bangladesh and India, during which Rashid managed a respectable haul of 30 wickets in seven Tests, including five four-fors. On an exhausting trip, that was a darn sight better than most of his team-mates.
If Smith does persuade Rashid that this driest of summers is the perfect chance for him to resume his Test career, then there would still be the question of whether England start the series with two frontline spinners.
With Moeen likelier to return for the second game at Lord’s in place of Ben Stokes, who will be answering charges of affray at Bristol Crown Court, Leach could resume a career that has so far consisted of a single game against New Zealand in April.
Bess did his prospects pects no harm with t hree ee cheap wickets in Paki- - stan’s second innings at Headingley last month, but he played in that series only because Leach had broken a thumb. When the selectors meet on Thursday, they are likely to conclude that Bess will not play at Edgbaston.
Two spinners would be bad news for Chris Woakes, though with five Tests crammed into six weeks England will need all the fast-bowling resources they can get. His chance will come, especially with James Anderson and Stuart Broad working their way back to match fitness. As A for India’s slowbowling b ranks, the Test T series signals the return of leftarmer Ravi nd ra Jadeja and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, A ranked third an and fifth in the world by the ICC. (England’s highest-ranked highe spinner, by contrast, contr is Moeen, who is 36th.) Kuldeep is in the squad too, and will be a serious option, not least because three of England’s top four – Cook, Keaton Jennings and Dawid Malan – are left-handers. Not only would Kuldeep’s stock delivery turn away from them, but none of the three had the chance to decode him from close quarters during the two white-ball series.
They will be relying on word of mouth from the likes of Root, Buttler and Jonny Bairstow, plus video analysis. As England discovered at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge, those come a poor second to time spent facing him in the middle.
Even so, Kohli will need to be persuaded to move away from Ashwin and Jadeja, who between them took 54 wickets as India thrashed England 4-0 two winters ago. The pair were less successful during India’s
3-1 defeat in England four years ago, with Jadeja’s most notable contribution being his alleged scuffle with Anderson in the stairwell of the Trent Bridge pavilion.
But conditions were more conducive to seam bowling that summer. This time, the sun looks set to shine well into August, further drying pitches that already seem more subcontinental than British.
Cook, for one, will recognise the d a n g e r. Jadeja a n d A s h wi n accounted for his wicket in nine innings out of 10 in 2016-17 — and could yet have the final say as India chase only their second Test series win in England in three decades.
If, on the other hand, Rashid trumps them, it would be the story of the summer.