Rashid’s Non-Selection Was The Right One

Alongside Essex’s ever maturing Ravi Bopara there was one notable absentee from England’s pre-Christmas touring party to India: Yorkshire’s leg-spinning all-rounder Adil Rashid. Despite the consternation's I’ve heard since from some Yorkshire supporters, the decision was made in the best interests of both England and Yorkshire, and more importantly the player himself.

The debates surrounding the merits of picking this spin prodigy for the national team will not be alien to the supporters who have regularly watched him over the course of the last two summers:

• 62 First Class Wickets in 2008 at 31 runs apiece
• Fourth highest wicket taker in 2008
• No other bowler took more than his 4 five wicket hauls this season
• A higher strike-rate than any other spin-bowler in England, with wickets coming every 59 balls
• In 2007 he scored almost 800 runs at an average of 46
• A relegation-saving century and 9 wickets in the final game of 2008
  

Have the selectors then made a great blunder in not picking him? These figures are compelling, especially when you consider that his competition for an England place alongside Monty Panesar was a piebald group of ageing county pro’s, nearly-men, journeymen and promising youngsters.

Others players discussed included the 33-year-old Gary Keedy averaging 41 with Lancashire and Samit Patel with only 12 first class wickets all season. Rashid’s figures surpass both these candidates – along with the eventually chosen Graham Swann who managed only 32 wickets this season (almost half Rashid’s eventual total). So why was he not picked? And more importantly, why was this a good decision?

Warne – I will hear some cry – was thrown straight into the Australian Test team. Why not do the same with Rashid and see what happens? I agree that faith is needed in young players. Warne, however, was a once in a lifetime cricketer. Look at those spinners thrust into the limelight too early: Chris Schofield and Yorkshire’s own Richard Dawson – both had faults found in their game, both suffered from lack of confidence as a result and both slipped out of the county game in their mid-twenties. Young spinners – especially leg-spinners – need watchful man-management.

India is also a difficult place to tour. Warne himself struggled with conditions that seemed felicitous for him, averaging 43 in his 9 matches in India. Facing Tendulkar, Dhoni and Sehwag on flat, if dusty, pitches would be a stern test for anyone, let alone a bowler in his first series.

Australia play a four-test series before England’s arrival and look set to hand a debut to the young off-spinner Jason Krejza. In a recent match against an Indian Board XI he bowled 31 wicketless overs for 199 runs. That is to say, very few spin-bowlers are ready to deal with the rigours required of them by an Indian tour – let-alone a young man still learning his trade.

While Rashid has enjoyed his most bountiful season to date, his form has varied markedly throughout the summer. In 2007 he was disappointing, averaging over 40 runs per wicket. This season he improved, but it was largely down to a late-season surge that he moved so highly up the wicket taking tables. With a recently remodeled action following a serious back injury he needs more time to define his difficult talent. Leg-spin is an art, but it does not come solely from talent and flair. Like any artist with a paintbrush or a composer with a piano, the leg-spin bowler needs hours of practice to control and temper his Dionysian qualities on a cricket field.

Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka’s new spin bowling dervish, is perhaps an unfair comparison in that he possesses a wholly remarkable delivery of the ball with a flick from his middle finger। However, despite his prodigious talent, he did not receive international recognition until he was 23 – and that is with a first class average of 15. Similarly Monty Panesar did not play until he was almost 24 – following several seasons of cricket with Northants in which he was taunted as being England potential. Rashid is still just 20.

It is worth repeating the mantra again and again: spin bowlers need time to develop, or you risk them having their confidence dented. The glare of innumerable television-camera’s at international matches mean problems are magnified by the swath of ex-professionals turned commentators, and not treated in the nets. Let us be right – Rashid is good enough to one-day play for England. But he is also young enough to be given a few more years of county training before his eventual selection. This will not just benefit Yorkshire, but also the England team for years to come.