Shane Warne believes England are “missing a trick” by not having leg-spinner Adil Rashid in their existing Test set-up.
The last of Rashid’s 19 Test appearances came on the 2019 tour of West Indies; he has 60 wickets in the format at 39.83. The 32-year-old was recalled to the red-ball arena by chief selector Ed Smith in the summer of 2018 despite only holding a white-ball deal at Yorkshire, his county side, and has not played in the County Championship since 2017.
In April this year, Rashid said he would consider a red-ball return at the end of the summer depending on “if my shoulder is 100%”. The aforementioned shoulder problem hampered him over the course of last summer, with injections getting him through England’s successful World Cup campaign.
Rashid impressed in the recent 2-1 ODI series win over Ireland, taking five wickets across three matches as he became the first English spinner to reach the landmark of 150 ODI wickets.
Speaking on Sky, Warne, the most prolific leg-spinner in Test history, said Rashid “could offer a lot” to England’s Test team, with off-spinner Dom Bess currently holding down the role as the side’s primary tweaker.
“I think he’s probably come into the best form of his life,” Warne said of Rashid. “I watched him in the one-day cricket bowling extremely well and I just wonder if the England selectors could say to him: ‘You don’t have to go back and play every single county four-day game. What we’d like you to do in-between Test matches, or if you feel like you need a bowl, is to maybe to go to a county and bowl’.
“I think Adil Rashid could offer a lot to this Test team, as well. Dom Bess, I think has got a chance, I think he’s very good. But having a wrist-spinner as well – in certain conditions they could play both of them – I think England are missing a trick not having Rashid.”
