Adil Rashid can push for a permanent place in England’s Test side in the opinion of the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, and the Australian believes one of the reasons for his own appointment in May was to harness leg-spin in international cricket.
That Rashid’s five for 64 on Saturday, which lit up the final day of the drawn first Test with Pakistan and followed his record-breaking none for 163 in the first innings, was the first such haul by an English leg-spinner since 1959 highlighted the country’s uneasy relationship with the art-form over the years. But Bayliss, who came up against the great Shane Warne during his playing days in Australian domestic cricket and coached Stuart MacGill at New South Wales, insists the Yorkshireman is not merely a horses for courses selection on the current tour but could provide a viable weapon on all surfaces.
“He’s definitely not a selection for just here,” said Bayliss. “We saw with Warne that he played everywhere. It will come down to whether he is bowling well enough to stay in the team. I think he showed the ability he has got and the benefits he can bring to English cricket going forward.”
Asked why England have failed to produce an international leg-spinner in recent times, Bayliss replied: “Usually they are a little more expensive and maybe not quite as accurate. Maybe English cricket over the last few years has had a bit too much of an emphasis on not going for runs. My belief is that the best way to stop the runs is by taking wickets.”
Bayliss has been keen to get Rashid into the Test side since arriving in the UK before the Ashes. His early discussions with the director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, included a request to provide greater direction in that department.
“I think to a certain degree one of the early things he wanted me to do was take them in a bit of a different direction to the last few years. To get a leg-spinner in there – or at least two spinners – gives the team different options rather than just four pace bowlers all the time and an orthodox bowler. We will try to mix it up.”
Rashid’s future beyond the current tour could yet depend on the role of all-rounder Moeen Ali, whose promotion to opener has allowed the leg-spinner in at No8.
“Mo is fantastic for him – he’s like a big brother and vice versa, to be honest. Adil backs Mo up as well. They are always chatting together, bowling in the nets together, throwing the ball to each other – with Mo there, Adil won’t be too far off the mark.”
Rashid’s performance was naturally a source of pride back home in Yorkshire, with his county captain, Andrew Gale, attributing the 27-year-old’s success to his maturity. The mastermind of two Championship titles now hopes England continue to back the leg-spinner, whose first Test squad call-up came in late 2008.
“The most pleasing thing for me is that it didn’t go for plan first innings but under pressure, and given the match situation with it petering out into a draw, he still came back out with the intention of bowling wicket-taking deliveries,” Gale told the Guardian.
“The Rash of old would have bowled to keep runs down after that but he is now mature and confident as a character. I put that down to being more experienced, both on the field and in his lifestyle. He puts the hard work in – he’s first in nets usually – but he’s also married with a child now and has a very settled home life.
“He’s been in and around the England squad for a while and probably felt like he hadn’t been backed – he should have played in the Caribbean [in April], for me. I’m not sure when he first got called up [seven years ago] he was ready. But the debut has still come later than expected and I hope he now gets a run in the side.”
England arrived in Dubai on Sunday for Thursday’s second Test with the belief that they can pull off a series victory after pushing Pakistan hard in Abu Dhabi. Key to that was Alastair Cook’s 263 – a 14-hour epic that ranks the third longest of all time – which Bayliss claims has shown the younger players the virtues of patience.
“It was a superb effort of concentration and it’s a great lesson for the young batters in the team that if you bat for a long time, the rewards are there. Most of them are stroke players and their development going forward will be about batting longer periods of time. Do that and they’ve got the shots to score a lot of runs,” said Bayliss.
“[The drawn first Test] certainly gives us belief that we can win Test matches. If we can play well in the next match, we give ourselves a good chance. Our mentality is that we won’t be playing the next two matches trying to draw them, we’ll be trying to win them.”
