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Cricket must accept T20 specialisation – Adil Rashid

by Wisden Staff 2 minute read

English cricket will have to get used to players specialising in T20, according to Adil Rashid.

The leg-spinner recently recommitted to red-ball cricket by signing a one-year cross-format contract with Yorkshire. But while he’s happy to have done so, and to be a part of England’s Test team again, the 30-year-old also warned that others will follow his previous decision to concentrate on short-format cricket.
“There’s always the ultimate goal of playing Test cricket, playing for your country, but as time goes on things may change,” he told talkSPORT.

“There are Twenty20 competitions all around the world, more competitions keep coming each year, and it may happen down the line that people just want to be T20 players.

“I think coaches, players, teams have got to start accepting that’s going to happen, that it’s a reality. It’s happening in other parts of the world, the West Indies for example, and if it happens then it happens. It’s about accepting it.”

Alex Hales also went white-ball only in 2018, but while the Nottinghamshire batsman has actually lost his place in England’s ODI side, Rashid has become increasingly central to the England set-up. After his recall to the Test side this summer he is now heavily involved in all three teams, and is in line for a major role during the Test series in Sri Lanka, on spin friendly surfaces.

Rashid had taken a lot of criticism, particularly from Yorkshire quarters, after his original decision to quit red-ball cricket.

“At the time I didn’t really feel much, I wasn’t really taking note of what people were saying,” he said.

“I don’t follow what people say about me, good or not so good. It doesn’t faze me in the sense that I knew what my task ahead was and what I want to achieve. Whatever decisions I made I know there are no regrets. I don’t look back.”

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