Adil Rashid’s selection by England for the first Test with India has caused one hell of a stink. But until he and Yorkshire go public on the true reasons why he currently does not want to play four-day cricket for the club, so much of the criticism flying around will be ill-informed.
Because let’s be honest, it’s pretty clear that this is not a case of Rashid simply not wanting to play red-ball cricket, given he’s accepted the call-up. It seems from the outside that he doesn’t want to play red-ball cricket for Yorkshire. There is a big difference here. Ed Smith, the national selector, is probably privy to the reasons why but perhaps the supporters and the pundits need to hear them too.
Because right now there is mainly just speculation and in some quarters he is being painted as a guy who has betrayed the county he has been a part of since he was 10 years old.
Knowing Rashid as I do – we were teammates for his first-team debut in 2006, before I went on later to become head coach – this will have hurt him a lot, hence he has since bitten back at some of it.
When Rashid took the decision to specialise in white-ball cricket at the start of the year, he said it was down to losing some motivation as regards the longer stuff. This is not uncommon when players drop out of an international team and think there is no way back, as was probably the case when he returned from a reasonable winter tour to then be overlooked for first Liam Dawson and then, come a marquee Ashes tour, the inexperienced Mason Crane.
But when a guy gets a sniff of a Test call-up and yet still declines a County Championship match – as Rashid did for the recent Roses fixture – it points to something a bit deeper and fundamental. Should he have played? Yes, skills-wise it would have been sensible. But for one reason or another, it appears he doesn’t want to be in that environment for extended spells, as opposed to dipping in and out for one-day matches.
How this gets resolved is anyone’s guess and it is hard to envisage a way forward together, not least since the England and Wales Cricket Board has made it mandatory for international players to play the relevant format for their counties from next season. I genuinely hope the two parties can make peace however.
In all likelihood the issues stem back to Rashid declining to play in the County Championship decider at Lord’s in 2016 in what was my final match as head coach. Now this was a huge occasion. Middlesex and Somerset had been battling it out all season at the top but a win for Yorkshire and we would have made it three titles in a row, despite having dipped a fraction from the previous two years.
Was I happy at the time? Of course not. He’s a professional cricketer and to miss a game of that magnitude was hugely disappointing. But I will always defend him for the fact that he had flagged up a desire to rest and spend time with his family at the end of the season two months earlier, knowing he was likely heading on tour with England to Bangladesh and India soon after, and so stuck to his guns. We knew this was the situation for a good while, we just couldn’t change his mind.
That match at Lord’s wasn’t to be for Yorkshire. But it was clear from that moment his relationship with the club changed. And it is a huge shame because personally I have always found Rashid good to work with and he is clearly a fine cricketer, hence I even took him with me to Adelaide Strikers for one season.
He is his own man and I do think that becoming a family man, and his growing Muslim faith, have seen cricket change from being an all-encompassing passion to a career that puts food on the table. But that’s not a bad thing. As he has matured and gained this wider perspective, it has helped him to develop as a cricketer and person.
If I am sympathetic to the player then this also extends to my old club and colleagues at Headingley, who keep seeing their plans ripped up by external events. Rashid could have timed his white-ball specialism better than late into pre-season, the impact of which was heightened when Liam Plunkett and David Willey left for the Indian Premier League at the 11th hour.
Yorkshire have also seen Kane Williamson’s spell shortened by New Zealand, Billy Stanlake’s overseas spell for Twenty20 cancelled completely by Cricket Australia at the last minute and now it would appear that Rashid will likely miss a huge chunk of the campaign they thought they actually had him for.
How Rashid goes against India will be fascinating to watch because taking 20 wickets is going to be the big challenge for England in what should be a ripping series. Virat Kohli’s record in this country may be pretty average but he is a serious player and should have a huge impact over the course of five Tests.
The tourists may have lost Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the first part but we had Ishant Sharma for two months at Sussex and he learned a lot about the Dukes ball and the lengths required. So look out for him.