The talk around Adil Rashid’s selection for the first Test against India hasn’t affected the England team, said Joe Root, adding that as captain, he was in favour of the leg-spinner’s inclusion.
Rashid hasn’t played Test cricket since December 2016 and first-class cricket after September 2017. More recently, he opted out of red-ball cricket for Yorkshire, his county side, to focus only on white-ball cricket. So, when he was called up for the Edgbaston Test, it created confusion in some circles, and anger in others.
“We feel we have some strong plans in place for him but ultimately, when you play against the world’s best players, they generally have answers. I’m sure there are a lot of England fans out there that love watching him play. We obviously know he’s a world-proven performer in this format and it’ll be very important for us to try and keep him quiet.
“But there are some other good players on show within these two teams and it’s important we make sure we outperform India as a whole.”
