As the UAE leg of England’s winter schedule draws to a close and attention turns towards South Africa there is much for English supporters to be positive about: The confirmation of the return to form of Alastair Cook; the consistent brilliance of James Anderson and Stuart Broad; the class of Joe Root; the outstanding performance of the newly revitalised one-day side and the character shown by a Test team who, despite the two-nil reverse against Pakistan, came within a whisker of winning the first Test and saving the second.
Reasons for Adil Rashid to be Cheerful
But nothing gives greater optimism for the future or better exemplifies the breath of fresh air brought to English cricket by the triumvirate of Andrew Strauss, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace than the bowling — and management — of Adil Rashid.
Over the past four decades attacking English spinners have been as rare as West Indian blockers. Traditionally of the finger rather than wrist-spin variety, with an emphasis on containment and building pressure rather than on aggression, England have tended to look towards solid, safe pairs of hands: bowlers who can be relied upon to dry up an end while the seamers rest and, all being well, chip in with a couple of wickets along the way. Not without success, of course, John Emburey and Ashley Giles being highly accomplished examples, but hardly players or a strategy that could be relied upon to run through an opposing line-up on a regular basis.
In Graeme Swann England had someone to break that mould: a match-winner capable of both tying up an end and bowling out the opposition. Swann was one of the key players in England’s rise to the top of the world rankings in 2012, too, and in looking towards that goal again England would like nothing more than to find a bowler capable of scaling the heights he reached once more.
And in Adil Rashid they may well have found him.
Based solely on the UAE performance, scepticism about that last line is easy to understand. Indeed, anyone looking at the cold statistics of the Test series might reasonably conclude that poor Adil had a shocker. He is the new owner of the record for the worst figures ever returned by a Test debutant. He took just eight wickets in the series at a cost of 556 runs with an average of 69.5 (as opposed to Yasir Shah’s fifteen at 21.53) at an economy rate of 4.06, with only nine maidens bowled in a total of 136.5 overs. Everything points to too many bad balls and not enough good ones.
But — and this is important — when the ball was good it was very good indeed. And it gave a glimpse of that elusive something England have always wanted, needed, but seldom had. Rashid’s performance in the second innings in Abu Dhabi, putting England into their oh-so-close-to-match-winning position with his 5-64, showed exactly what he can do – and is able to do again.
Rashid has thrived under the management of Jason Gillespie at Yorkshire where he has been given free rein to attack, spin the ball hard and look to take wickets. He has been allowed similar licence to express himself by England and that faith has already been rewarded with excellent performances in ODIs against New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan. Bowling in the Test arena is a different kettle of fish, of course, but what is so refreshing is the sensible and creative way that the England selectors are looking to manage and support Rashid as he begins his journey as a Test bowler.
An away series in the UAE against a Pakistan side containing some of the finest players of spin in the world game is about as tough a baptism as could be imagined and having been even moderately successful it might be expected that Rashid would get another chance to claim his berth in the Test team straight away. It is odds-on that that is exactly what would have happened in the not-too-distant past. But by not selecting him for South Africa England have done their player — and themselves — an enormous service, shielding him from the potential damage that could be inflicted in a series in which the seamers are expected to dominate whilst also giving him the opportunity to further develop his white-ball skills with Gillespie’s Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash.
Rashid is not by any means the finished article yet, of course, but his style of bowling suits the way that the modern international game is evolving. Variations are paramount and the clampdown on bowling actions by the ICC, leading to the effective outlawing of the doosra, has meant that off-spinners are becoming more and more marginalised in international cricket by their inability to turn the ball both ways. As a legspinner with an effective and well-disguised googly Rashid can beat the bat on either side. He will always have bad days, of course, but over the course of a match he will have spells when he causes real damage and against tail-enders in particular he could prove to be devastating.
Shane Warne, who spent time working with Rashid in the UAE, is in no doubt of his qualities and the exciting dimension he brings to England’s attack: “When anyone first starts their Test career, it takes time to see the best of them. What we’ve seen already from Rashid are some glimpses of magic. All of us need to be a little bit patient with him and he needs to be patient, too. ”
“There’s not too many people going round with a better leg-break than Rashid’s. He’s as good as anyone I’ve seen, ever. So it just comes down now to having that confidence, backing yourself in the middle of a game.”
That England are shrewdly allowing Rashid to develop that confidence away from the Test arena this winter is to their great credit. The potential rewards to English cricket are enormous.
