Birmingham: Adil Rashid was Tuesday named as the sole specialist spinner in the England playing XI for the series opener against India, creating more pressure on the leg-spinner after his controversial recall to the Test side. It will be a landmark game
Rashid, who last played a Test in December 2016, has been preferred over all-rounder Moeen Ali in the XI. His sudden selection in the Test team created a furore as he signed only a white-ball contract with Yorkshire earlier this year and also chose not to play a four-day game against Lancashire when he was in the running for a place in the national team.
The 30-year-old has been recalled at the back of his impressive performances in the shorter formats of the game.
Earlier, England’s decision to recall Rashid to the Test side, despite him not playing four-day county cricket, has been criticised by two of his county’s most prominent former players.
If someone is not playing four-day cricket in our schooling ground to prepare Test match cricketers, I don’t think you should be able to play in a Test match
Michael Vaughan
Former Yorkshire and England batsman Geoffrey Boycott said, “By picking Adil Rashid, England are selecting the unselectable – a player who will not play four-day Championship cricket for Yorkshire because his heart isn’t in it but he will play for England in Test Matches. Absurd? Yes,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
However, skipper Joe Root has backed Rashid saying the leg-spinner would give the team an attacking option. “With the amount of right handers in Indian team, Rashid gives us a really attacking spinning option and he’s in confident form,” Root was quoted as saying on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) website.
“He’s gone about his business just as he does in the one-day side, he doesn’t seem affected at all,” Root added, hinting at the flak the 30-year-old has been drawing since his inclusion.