With England’s bowling attack struggling for penetration in the Ashes in Australia, it’s time to question the apparently accepted absence of Adil Rashid.
England have trouble taking wickets on flat pitches, yet faced with five Tests in Australia they didn’t bother bringing their most effective flat-pitch bowler. I’d quite like someone to explain that to me.
It’s not that I think Adil Rashid would have completely changed England’s fortunes. I don’t. I just don’t really get what’s happened with him or why everyone seems to be absolutely fine with it.
Here we have a right-arm fast-medium attack garnished with a single right-arm finger spinner for variety; and here we have the wrist-spinner who took more Test wickets than any of his teammates on last winter’s India tour. If Rashid is not the answer, he is surely at the very least a half-decent educated guess.
If a Test bowling average of 42.78 cries out for inclusion, then it’s not at all easy to hear. But when you’ve been playing alongside ineffective teammates in matches where the opposition have racked up 700, it’s easy to see how a little bit of average inflation might manifest itself.
As England labour ineffectually Down Under, they might like to review some of Rashid’s first-innings performances from last winter and ponder what such a bowler might have achieved given a modicum more bounce to work with in Australia.
A fixture in the limited-overs teams and with superb results on Australian pitches in the Big Bash League, a case can definitely be made that this was a tour which might have suited Rashid. It’s not even like he’s a rank tail-ender – the guy has 10 first-class hundreds.
There is of course one very striking difference between the 2016 team that lost to India and the one that is being similarly annihilated in Australia right now. I don’t know whether it’s pertinent, but it’s the only thing I can think of: Adil Rashid is yet to play a Test under Joe Root.
