At the Adelaide Oval on Thursday an 18‑year‑old leg‑spinner with a shock of red hair and a devilish wrong’un sent the Australian cricket fraternity into something of a lather.
South Australia’s Lloyd Pope became the youngest bowler in Sheffield Shield history to claim a seven-wicket haul, bamboozling Queensland’s batsmen in much the same way he did England’s rookies when taking out eight of them during the Under-19 World Cup in January.
A quick scroll down social media timelines both then and now reveals that in the eyes of many in Australia a star has very much been born and it is only a matter of time before young Pope’s eye-catching locks have a Baggy Green cap on top of them.
Almost 5,000 miles away, in Colombo, another wrist-spinner gives a knowing nod about the hype his ilk tend to generate with early success. Adil Rashid, who announced himself to English cricket as an 18-year-old with six wickets on his County Championship debut for Yorkshire in 2006, had never heard of Pope before but having been made aware of his feat, is nevertheless preaching patience and a general cooling of the jets.
“There’s pros and cons [to early success]. You want him to develop his skills and as he gets older, he’ll mature and get better,” Rashid says. “They say leg-spinners develop in their late-20s/early-30s. So it’s about making sure that if he does get in the [Australia] team he’s not affected by the hype, knowing he has to follow in the footsteps of Shane Warne. That could potentially be a dangerous route to go down.”
Rashid is the now matured leg-spinner of which he speaks. A prodigy who got the Warne-comparisons early on, he is now 30 years old and having thrived under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan, is unquestionably England’s most important bowler going into the World Cup next summer.
In the past few years he has begun to fully understand the art of working out a batsman. After learning, in his own words, to “train smarter”, he is not only equipped with all the tools but also knows when to deploy them, such that only Afghanistan’s wrist-spinner Rashid Khan can better his 116 one-day wickets since the last World Cup.
By Rashid’s admission it has been “a rollercoaster” during this time, and not least the last 12 months. He became the subject of public debate in the summer when recalled to the Test side by the national selector, Ed Smith, despite having signed a white-ball-only deal with Yorkshire. His county future was plunged into doubt as the hierarchy scarcely concealed its frustration.
Since then Rashid has sorted out his future at Headingley with a new one-year deal; a freebie of sorts for the club now England have given him a central contract. Bad blood between himself and the coach, Andrew Gale, which in part stemmed from him missing a title-decider in 2016 in order to rest for England duty, has simmered down too.
“I’ve been there since I was 11 years old. In my heart that was home for me. To leave would have been a tough decision,” Rashid says. “You have ups and downs as player and coach but we sat down and had a chat. There’s always going to be [occasional] tension or friction but it’s nice to know it’s behind us. Hopefully we can kick on and get a good friendship. For now everything is OK.”
Rashid’s controversial Test return against India was quiet amid a summer dominated by the seamers (a jaw-dropping leg break to bowl KL Rahul at the Oval notwithstanding). And of his 500 first-class wickets, the 48 that came in 15 Tests have cost 40 runs apiece. But after another impressive display in the 3-1 one-day series win in Sri Lanka, expectations will rise come the red-ball leg of the tour.
Rashid admits such pressures would get to him in the past but family life and a deeper understanding of his faith are now at play as he treats every match the same, along with the support of his close friend Moeen Ali and the decision to come off social media.
The pair, whose families both originate from the Mirpur region of Pakistan, are scarcely seen apart on tour. Their dual success is no coincidence and Rashid is acutely aware of the role they are playing as the England and Wales Cricket Board tries to bring more British-Asian players into the mainstream after decades of neglect.
Rashid says: “We’ve got a big support, especially in the Asian community, whether it’s Bradford, Birmingham or Pakistan. In your younger days you play for yourself but as you represent England you go all around the world and realise it’s a bit bigger than that. People look up to you, so it’s about setting a good example so when they’re coming through, they see that and know it’s achievable.”
